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Small 4to (140 x 195 mm). 91 leaves, 149 written pages in two hands, the main body of the text complete, up to 29 lines per page, ruled space 85 x 155 mm. Incipit: "In nomine domini amen. Noch dem also gesprochen ist daß alle kunst kunftigk ist von got und ist by im on ende.". Rubrics touched in red, calligraphic initials in red and some with flourishing, 25 watercolour illustrations of scientific apparatus, 10 mathematical and architectural diagrams in pen. 15th century German calf over wooden boards, tooled in blind with vertical rows of hunting scenes within a triple-filet frame, remains of two fore-edge clasps. Stored in custom-made half morocco clamshell case. A Renaissance alchemist's handbook, quoting Al-Razi by name and deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition of alchemical art. An intriguing manuscript which bears witness to early practical chemistry in 15th century Germany and to the immense influence of Arabic alchemy, illustrated with talented watercolour diagrams of the associated apparatus. - Indeed, the word 'alchemy' itself is derived from the Arabic word 'al-kimia', and it was Al-Razi who claimed that "the study of philosophy could not be considered complete, and a learned man could not be called a philosopher, until he has succeeded in producing the alchemical transmutation". Alchemy and chemistry often overlapped in the early Islamic world, but "for many years Western scholars ignored Al-Razi's praise for alchemy, seeing alchemy instead as a pseudoscience, false in its purposes and fundamentally wrong in its methods, closer to magic and superstition than to the 'enlightened' sciences. Only in recent years have pioneering studies conducted by historians of science, philologists, and historians of the book demonstrated the importance of alchemical practices and discoveries in creating the foundations of modern chemistry" (Ferrario). The quest to transmute base metals into gold and to obtain the Philosophers' Stone was a practical as well as theoretical pursuit, as attested by the existence of this manuscript. The main body of the text opens on fol. 5 with an introduction to the art of alchemy, whose practice requires reference to the ancient authorities. Recipes for the various pigments, solutions, acids and alkalis are listed in groups, before descriptions are given of the planets relevant to the alchemist's art, starting with Saturn, and their effect on the elements, again with reference to the ancient authorities including Al-Razi, Origen, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus, and Hermes Trismegistus. There follow notes on the ease of obtaining various elements, before lists of alchemical compounds - including 'sal petri' and 'aqua lunaris' - are grouped according to their nature. Practical instructions, organised by chapter, begin on fol. 17v with the manufacture of vermillion and 'spangrün'; the first of the illustrations depicts two vessels for the burning of cinnabar. Further recipes involve the burning of various substances - illustrated with drawings of furnaces, cucurbits and other vessels, and distillation apparatus - before moving on to the manufacture of acids, bases and oils, mentioning the use of quicksilver, then, finally, turning to the manufacture of gold. The end of the text on fol. 69 is marked with the words 'Alchimia & Scientia' in red ink with calligraphic flourishes, above a floral device. - Collation: written by another scribe and bound before the alchemist's handbook (ff. 5-69) are astrological calculations, including those charting the trajectories of the Sun and the Moon (ff. 1-4, obviously incomplete). At the end, 9 leaves with geometrical calculations, illustrated with pen diagrams (ff. 70v-78, apparently incomplete, 2 leaves loose). The last 12 leaves are blanks (ff. 79-91). - Condition: The binding is sound and intact, but shows significant losses to the upper cover; spine entirely lost. Two leaves loose at the end of the manuscript, outer margins waterstained and tattered, surface soiling most notable to f. 1. Occasionally loose and split at gatherings; presence of bookworm damage on some pages; very occasional wax stains. - Provenance: 1) The script, watermark and binding indicate that the manuscript was made in Germany in the final two decades of the 15th century. The watermark visible on certain pages - a heart beneath a crown, above 'Ib' - is closest to a motif widely used in Germany around 1480-1500 (cf. Piccard 32464-32481), and the binding is contemporary. The pastedowns, taken from a Litany of Saints, are also roughly contemporary. 2) This compendium of cryptic knowledge seems to have lain undisturbed for many years after its compilation: the contemporary stamped leather binding is preserved and no booklabels or ownership inscriptions mark the manuscript changing hands. 3) Zisska & Schauer, 4 May 2010, lot 6. 4) Braunschweig Collection, Paris. - The first pigment recipe books in German would not be published until the 1530s (cf. Schießl, Die deutschsprachige Literatur zu Werkstoffen und Techniken der Malerei, 1989). While the manual at hand never appeared in print, a much later manuscript of the same text, apparently copied by no less an authority than the botanist Hieronymus Bock (1498-1554), survives in Heidelberg's University Library under the title of "Ordenlicher proces der waren alten heimlichen kunst der alchymey in drey bucher gestelt" ("Alchemistisches Kunstbuch", Cod. Pal. germ. 294, dated to the middle or third quarter of the 16th century). Unlike the vividly coloured and deftly shaded illustrations in the present volume from the 15th century, the unsophisticated pen drawings in the later Palatina manuscript were clearly executed by the scribe himself rather than by a trained artist. Also, our manual contains additional illustrations at the end, showing some of the most necessary equipment on a double-page spread, as well as five additional pages of recipes for "lutum sapientiae", "postulatz golt" etc., some parts written in a secr.

First edition. THE FIRST MODERN WORLD ATLAS HAND-COLOURED AND HEIGHTENED IN GOLD. Fourth Latin edition of the first modern world atlas, and a copy hand-coloured and heightened in gold. First published in 1570, the Theatrum is the first atlas to contain maps printed in a uniform style and format and to display a catalogue of the authors whose source Ortelius used in the drawing of the maps. Ortelius's atlas "set a standard by which subsequent collections would be judged and compared" (Short). Even though it was the most expensive work published at the time, it proved an instant success with four versions of the first edition being printed in 1570 alone. Several editions were printed at the Officina Plantiniana at the end of the 16th century and from 1585 Ortelius began to include historical maps in a section called Paregon. The maps and plates in the Parergon may be considered "the most outstanding engravings depicting the wide-spread interest in classical geography in the 16th century" (Van der Krogt). The present 1592 edition, the fourth Latin edition, contains 108 maps as well as the 26 maps and views of the Parergon, as well as an index called Nomenclator Ptolemaicus that lists all the names mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia. New to this edition are the maps of Flanders and Brabant. "This is the first edition of the Theatrum with a clear division into three parts: (1) the Atlas itself, (2) the Parergon, and (3) the Nomenclator. The Parergon had for the first time its own title page. For this title page Plantin made use of the woodblock he had used for the title page of Genesis in the Biblia Regia, printed in 1569-72. Printing started in July 1590, but because of a shortage of paper the printing lasted longer than expected. The Nomenclator was printed between February and May 1591 (the title page was dated 1591). The rest of the Theatrumwas printed in the summer of 1591. The first copies were delivered on 6 August 1591. The colophon however has the date 1592. The Plantin Press printed 525 copies of this edition. After this edition, only the fifth Additamentum would further enlarge the Theatrum" (Koeman). The present copy, which has all the maps in contemporary hand-colouring, has an early Spanish provenance, with marginal comments in Spanish and Latin. The text on the map of Valencia has been censored with a patch, erasing the text on the practice of Islam in Spain; this is the final edition of the text in which this passage appeared. The title of the atlas, the 'Theatre of the Earth,' references the idea of the theatre of nature, in which God's laws play out for a human audience. It is "a title that announces encyclopedic intentions of surveying all of nature to provide complete and ordered coverage" (Short), providing a mirror of nature for the service of humanity. This idea achieved such broad cultural penetration that Shakespeare's 1599 play As You Like It would declare that "All the world's a stage." Only three other complete copies with contemporary hand-colouring listed on RBH since 1984. Provenance: Ruperto de Zafra (inscription on title page and marginalia in Spanish and Latin); Christie's New York, 15 October 2021, lot 68, $237,500. "With the exception of his friend [Gerardus] Mercator, Ortelius (1527-98) was the principal cartographer of the sixteenth century. He was born to a Catholic family whose origins were in Augsburg. At the age of twenty he was admitted as an illuminator of maps into the guild of St. Luke in his native town. Soon he was able to earn his living by buying, coloring, and selling maps produced by map makers in various countries. Ortelius traveled widely in his profession; he went regularly to the Frankfurt Fair and visited Italy several times before 1558. In the period 1559-1560 he traveled through Lorraine and Poitou in the company of Mercator, who encouraged him to become a cartographer and to draw his own maps. The first product of this new activity was an eight-sheet map of the world published in 1564. In 1565 he published a map of Egypt (two sheets), in 1567 a map of Asia (two sheets), and in 1570 a map of Spain (six sheets). "The growing demand for maps of distant countries, caused by the rapidly expanding colonization and the development of commerce, had already led to the production of large collections of maps of various size and provenance, for instance, Lafreri's atlas published ca. 1553. At the suggestion of the Dutch merchant and map collector Hooftman, and of his friend Radermacher, Ortelius undertook the publication of a comprehensive atlas of the world. It appeared in May 1570 in the form of a single volume, in folio, entitled Theatrum orbis terrarum, published by Egidius Coppens Diesth and printed by Plantin in Antwerp. It contained fifty-three sheets with a total of seventy copperplate maps, most of them engraved by Frans Hoogenberg, and thirty-five leaves of text . "The Theatrum won for Ortelius the title of geographer to King Phillip II of Spain. It also secured for him a substantial income, enabling him to continue his travels to collect new material. In 1577 he visited England and Ireland, making the personal acquaintance of John Dee, Camden, Hakluyt, and other British geographers . During the later part of his life, Ortelius spent much time on classical studies . In 1584 he published Nomenclator Ptolemaicus, which dealt with place names in Ptolemy's geography, and Parergon, a collection of maps illustrating ancient history, printed by Plantin. The Nomenclator and the Parergon were incorporated into several of the later editions of the Theatrum" (DSB). "When the Theatrum appeared, European map production was shifting from Italy to Antwerp, Ortelius's home town and a center of entrepreneurial activity in Europe. 'Mapbooks' had appeared in several formats well before Ortelius first started preparing the Theatrum project. Portuguese discoveries of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were documented by manuscript charts bound together in volume form.

Single volume, decorated manuscript on thick polished fibrous buff paper, in Farsi, 311 leaves (with two later endleaves at each end), 250 by 175 mm; text in four columns, 31 lines cursive naskh script, headings in red, catch-words throughout and leaves foliated in a later hand, columns double-ruled in red, a few later marginal annotations, some later ink inscriptions in red and black ink, these in Ottoman Turkish and Farsi, a few scattered ink smudges else very clean and attractive condition internally; early sixteenth-century Ottoman leather over pasteboards, covers with cut-out central medallions and corner-pieces willed with filigree detailing against a gilt backdrop, ruled in gilt, marbled paper pastedowns, an attractive early binding. islam24 08 Exceptionally early medieval manuscript copy of one of the most important works of sufi poetry by Rumi. Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273) was a Persian poet, originally from greater Khorasan, who is best known for his Sufi poetry that has transcended linguistic and cultural borders since it was compiled in the 13th century, giving Rumi the alternative names 'Mawlana ' and 'Mawlavi' which translate as the 'Master'. His Mathnavi (collected poems, also the term assigned to a form of Persia meter) is a pillarstone of Sufi literature, formed of a vast collection of self-reflective lyrical anecdotes of Sufi wisdom inspired by the Qur'an and Islamic teachings. Rumi formed his verses in a spontaneous manner as a reflection of events or thoughts that appeared to him over the course of his everyday life, a style of authorship that very much set him aside from his contemporaries. The revelatory nature of the composition and loosely connected narrative of didactic stories made Rumi's works immensely popular with Eastern and Western audiences alike, making him one of the most collected poets internationally since his death in 1273 AD. The present text is an early recension of Rumi's Divan'e Kabir, also known as the Divan'e Shams'e Tabrizi, which was likely compiled in circa 1246 during the poet's time in Anatolia. The text is a collection philosophical musings by Rumi that explore themes of love and loss. Shams'e Tabrizi (1185-1248 AD) was a Sufi dervish and poet, known to have formed a close bond with Rumi when they were both in Konya, acting as his spiritual teacher and leader. In 1246 Shams abruptly left Konya and Rumi started compiling verses in the form of love letters pleading for his friend and master's return. Shams returned a year later only to disappear again in 1248, never to be seen by Rumi again and presumed dead. Upon Shams' second disappearance Rumi returned to his poetry and wrote many verses lamenting the loss of his partner. These combined collections of poems about Shams are called Divan'e Shams'e Tabrizi and portray very strong themes of Sufi love, loss, friendship and a longing for divine unity that have transcended temporal barriers to remain one of the poet's most celebrated literary achievements. The colophon at the end of this manuscript stipulates that it was copied by Khalil al-Malawi in the year 654 AH (1256 AD), however this same scribe is known to have copied multiple other manuscripts during the mid-fourteenth century: thus one can assume that the intended date for this manuscript was in fact 754 AH, when this scribe was active. This dating indicates that the manuscript was copied only 80 years after the death of Rumi, making it one of the earliest dated copies of this text. The only other dated manuscripts to precede the present example are from 1304, 1323, 1327 and 1340 respectively, making this the fifth earliest dated Rumi manuscript of the Divan'e Shams'e Tabrizi. The other records are all housed in institutions, including Tehran University Library (two copies) and another in the Museum of Konya, where they will likely remain for the foreseeable future; opportunities to acquire manuscripts of this literary significance are few and far between. Though there is little documentation about the scribe, the regular hand and composition of this manuscript indicate that Khalil al-Malawi was a skilled calligrapher in medieval Anatolia. The paper on which this manuscript has been copied is thick fibrous Damascan buff paper, polished to create a sheen and of a very high quality for this period. Although the binding is later, likely mid- to late- sixteenth century, it is a very fine example of it's kind and probably of Ottoman origin with contemporary marbled paper doubleurs.

Folio (300 x 406 mm). Italian manuscript on vellum and paper. 233 ff., text in two columns of 50 to 56 lines, ornate lettering. The first 216 ff. consist of quires of 6 ff., each comprising 2 outer leaves of vellum in which are inserted 4 ff. of paper. The last 17 ff. have 7 vellum leaves. Two additional vellum leaves for the endpapers. Numerous finely drawn red and blue initials and 38 initials and colour and gilt. Bound in early 18th century full vellum. First part (of two) of Bartolus's commentary on the Infortiatum, the second part of the Digest or Pandects. The subjects under discussion in this part include matrimonial law, divorce, dowries, guardianship, wills, and intestate succession. This early 15th century manuscript is finely illuminated with initials in colours and gilt; the opening initial shows a jurist handing a scroll to a woman. The manuscript is remarkable not only for the additional commentary provided in the margins by a contemporary scholar, but also for the numerous occasional drawings he has casually sketched in the margins, often of a whimsical and sometimes drastic nature: there are several expressive caricatures and grotesque faces; a passage discussing a recovery of the dowry following a divorce shows a man plunging a dagger into the head of his (ex-)wife. - Explicit on fol. 229: ''Explicit prima pars lecture Bartoli super Inforciato. Deo gratias et beatissime Marie ejusque genetrici et virgini Katerine''. The 1406 date on the binding does not appear in the explicit and may be taken from the 5 pages of glosses and text added at the end. - Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313/14-57), who taught at Perugia and Pisa, was one of the principal authors in the transmission of Roman law. His commentaries on the Code of Justinian were frequently republished until the 17th century. The Manuscripta Juridica database hosted by the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte lists about 40 copies of this first part preserved in public libraries up to the year 1500. - Margins a bit trimmed (occasionally touching marginalia). Provenance: from the manuscript collection of Thomas Phillipps, with his MS no. 4420 on the front vellum flyleaf; sold at Sotheby's sale of his collection held in June 1908 (lot 68). - Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomae Phillipps (Middle Hill, 1837), 4420.

Servetus - the expurgated edition - with contemporary hand-colour Folio. Large woodcut printer's device on title-page; double-page woodcut old map of the world, 26 old regional maps, 2 modern maps of the world, 20 new regional maps and one full-page, most with text enclosed in elaborate woodcut borders, probably by Hans Holbein and Urs Graf, text with 2 full-page woodcuts of a diagram and armillary sphere showing the projection of the winds by Albrecht Dürer (l4 verso), all with magnificent contemporary hand-colour in full, 4 large woodcut diagrams, woodcut initials, colophon n4 present, seventeenth-century limp vellum, recased. Collation: a-i(6), k-m(6), n(4), 50 maps, A-G(6), 2[-]; pp., [1]-149, [3], 50 maps, [76]. Beautifully coloured in a contemporary hand throughout, and very rare as such, this is the second edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia' to be edited by Michael Villanovanus, better known as Servetus, (c1490-1570). It was printed by Gaspar Trechsel for Hugues de la Porte (1500-1572) in Lyon, a well-known protestant publisher and bookseller, and a prominent member of the Grande Compagnie des Libraries de Lyon (founded in 1519), many of whose works were on the list of condemned books, some of which were destroyed on the banks of the Saone by order of the Archbishop in 1568 (Davis). Nevertheless, the most inflammatory remarks from the earlier editions of the text have been removed. While working as an editor for the publishers Melchior (c1490-1570) and Gaspar Trechsel, Servetus, who was born at Villanueva, in Aragon, Spain, wrote the preface and many of the descriptions for the versos of these maps, for an edition which was first published in 1535. He unwittingly translated verbatim the text accompanying map 41, 'Tab. Ter. Sanctae', of the Holy Land, from the 1522 and 1525 editions, in which it states that Palestine "was not such a fertile land as was generally believed, since modern travellers reported it barren". Excising the offensive text for this new edition did not save Servetus, when he was burnt at the stake in 1553, this heresy was charged to him, along with 39 other counts, which included the sins of writing against the Holy Trinity and infant baptism. As a result, many copies of the book were burned with him on the orders of John Calvin. The maps, which are very rarely found with such fine contemporary colour, as here, include 27 depicting the ancient world, 22 of the modern world, and one of Lotharingia. They are printed from the same woodblocks that were created by Laurent Fries for the 1522 edition of Ptolemy's 'Geographia', after the original 1513 maps of Martin Waldseemuller (1470-1520). Fries was originally a physician, "at a succession of places in the Alsace region, with a short spell in Switzerland, before settling in Strasbourg, in about 1519. By this time, he had established a reputation as a writer on medical topics, with several publications already to his credit. Indeed, it was thus that Fries met the Strasbourg printer and publisher Johann Grüninger, an associate of the St. Die group of scholars formed by, among others, Walter Lud, Martin Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller. It would seem that Gruninger was responsible for printing several of the maps prepared by Waldseemuller, and for supervising the cutting of the maps for the 1513 edition of Ptolemy, edited by the group. Three of the maps relate to the Americas: 'Terra Nova', the first map in an atlas dedicated to America; 'Tabula noua totius orbis', to which he added images of Russian, Egyptian, Etheopian, Trapobanan and Mursulian kings, and an elephant off the coast of Greenland; and 'Orbis typus universalis', the 'Admiral's map', and the first map in an atlas to name America'. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) created his image of the armillary sphere for the Gruninger edition of Ptolemy's Geography, 1525. His simple and elegant rendition of the inhabited parts of the globe, within the floating spherical astrolabe, is less a scientific instrument and more a framework for the schematized world; belying the complex nature of Ptolemy's text. Alden & Landis 541/9; Burden 4; Davis 'On the Protestantism of Benoit Rigaud', 1955, page 246; Phillips Atlases 366; Sabin 66485; Shirley 47-49.

Hardcover. First. THE FIRST EUROPEAN BOOK TO PRINT CHINESE TEXT -- London: Printed by I. Wolfe for Edward White, 1588. First edition in English. Octavo (7 1/8" x 5 3/8", 181mm x 136mm). [Full collation available.] Bound in later (XVIIc?) paneled speckled calf. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel. Blind roll to the edges of the boards. All edges of the text-block speckled red. Headpiece and fore-corners strengthened. Surface-cracking at the hinges, with some erosion to the boards (perhaps from moisture). Upper front fore-corner worn. Paste-downs renewed. Mildly evenly tanned throughout. Signs of damp to the lower margin through quire E, most pronounced to the title-leaf. Marginal ink-stain to L3-7. Paper flaws to H4 (marginal) and to M4 (about five lines high, two to three words across). Lacking the final blank. Armorial bookplate of Edward William Harcourt with a graphite shelf-mark to the front paste-down. Juan Gonzáles de Mendoza (1545-1618) was an Augustinian friar who, despite the subject of the present work, never went to China. He was, rather, appointed Bishop of Chiapas (Mexico, 1607) and then of Popayán (Colombia, 1608) -- and so might rather have become a scholar of the Americas. Indeed, the final part of the work does discuss the Caribbean and Mexico at some length, so much so that Ortelius crowns the present work the most informative in the preparation of his own atlas. In the end it was not the Augustinians but the Jesuits who made the greatest Western inroads to China, such that the opening decades of the XVIIc would see a surge in Chinese interest fueled by the publications of Matteo Ricci most of all. Yet for the curious Elizabethans, Parke's translation of the work (first published in 1585 in Spanish) -- made at the behest of Richard Hakluyt, who published a compendium of explorations (the Principall Navigations of 1589) -- was the largest window onto the kingdom of whose fifteen provinces Gonzales writes "every one of them is bigger then [sic] the greatest kingdome that we doo understand to be in all Europe" (p. 13). The second part (in two "bookes," pp. 136-237 and 238-304) expands the geographic remit with Spanish voyages to the Philippines. For all the accusations that the text is fundamentally derivative, it is still of considerable note for being the first to print, with western type, Chinese characters (pp. 92 & 93). The third part, drawn as it is from personal experience or at least personal research in "New Spain," has a more compelling authority. His description of Mexico City as a sort of Venetian Eden (p. 317) is particularly alluring. The Augustinians, like -- albeit to a lesser degree than -- the Jesuits, had a strong network of sources in the region that allowed for a comprehensive study of the region's topography, nature and people. As such, the volume is as much an important work of Elizabethan Americana (Sabin writes that it is "so rare that we have never seen it") as it is of Sinica. The volume was in the vast library (noted on p. 211 (sub Parke) of the 1883 catalogue) of Edward William Vernon Harcourt (1825-1891) of Nuneham House in Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire. Harcourt was an MP from 1878-1885 for Oxforshire and then for Henley. His library shows him to be a passionate naturalist and Orientalist; he owned in addition to this English edition two Italian editions of the work. The work is indeed rare; it has come to auction only seven times in this century (commanding prices as high as $216,600!) and only 37 examples are recorded on OCLC. Purchased at Sotheby's London 4 November 2014, lot 189. Cordier, Sinica 13; ESTC S103230; Sabin 27783.

15TH CENTURY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NATURAL HISTORY AND MEDICINE . Second (first Strasbourg) Latin edition, very rare, of the most extensive 15th-century work on natural history and medicine, first published by Meydenbach in Mainz in 1491, and compiled by the German doctor and herbalist Johannes de Cuba or Johannes von Kaub (fl. 1484-1503). It was the prototype for all subsequent editions. Due to its date of printing,it is the last major medical work to cover medicines from the Old World only. The Hortus sanitatis, meaning 'Garden of Health', provides information on the medicinal use of plants and animals both real and mythical. It is partly based on theGart de gesundheit, published in 1485, which is sometimes attributed to Johann von Cube, and was originally printed by Peter Schöffer at Mainz in 1485. However, it should be regarded as a separate work, as it covers nearly 100 more medicinal plants than theGart der gesundheitand also includes extensive sections on animals, birds, fish and minerals. The Hortus Sanitatis is divided into 6 parts: De Herbis, with 530 chapters on herbs; De Animalibus, with 164 chapters on land animals (Chapter 1: De homo); De Avibus, with 122 chapters on birds and other airworthy animals; De Piscibus, with 106 chapters on aquatic animals; De Lapidibus, with 144 chapters on semi-precious stones, ores and minerals; and the sixth constituting an essay on uroscopy, the medieval art of performing diagnoses through examination of a patient's urine. It is printed in Gothic characters in two columns of 55 lines and includes abundant illustrations copied from the 1491 edition, consisting of over 1000 woodcuts the width of a column, several of which are repeated, depicting hundreds of plants, mammals, birds, insects, fish, monsters and other fabulous creatures. In its many editions and translations, the Hortus Sanitatis was the most popular and influential herbal of its time, and served as an encyclopaedia of the plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms and the medical applications of their products. ABPC/RBH list only two complete copies. "It was not until the Early Renaissance that Man discovered Nature in all its richness and plunged into investigating it. This gave rise to new truly empirical and experimental methods of studies, being in sharp contrast with the traditional scholastic approach and a mystic understanding of the world. In his thirst for knowledge Man treated Nature not as a passive object of contemplations but as an unusually rich source which, once understood and investigated, would reveal all of its wealth. Mysteries of Nature and their discovery got to the forefront of scientific research, which was also engaged in rearranging and revising the earlier evidence based on classical and mediaeval sources. This period is particularly fascinating as the time of settling accounts with the earlier experience and discovering new territories and tools of scientific development such as invention of printing . "Folk medical knowledge was a general source of information passed on from generation to generation. Its dissemination was made easier as herbals appeared at that time. Those were the first medical and botanical printed books of encyclopaedic nature. They could hardly be called scientific in the present-day sense of the word since the concepts of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance were rather aimed at rearranging and popularizing what had already been known. Nevertheless, such books were signs of the times and an important step on the way to science . "Herbarium by Apuleius Placotonicus (or pseudo-Placotonicus) is the earliest printed herbal, published in Rome most likely in 1481. In the foreword the author mentions the Monte-Cassino manuscript over a thousand years old as a source-book for his Herbarium. This treatise combines medicinal formulae with description of herbs. Soon afterwards three printed books came out in Mainz that were to have a strong influence on the future of pharmacy. Those were the Latin Herbarius (1484), the German Herbarius (1485) and Ortus (Hortus) Sanitatis (1491). The first two of them must have been based on earlier manuscripts though the evidence of such borrowings can be found only when these herbals are compared with the texts by Apuleius or with the ancient Greek and Roman originals" (Kuznicka, pp. 255-257). "The first of these is the Latin Herbarius of 1484, which gives pictures and descriptions of 150 plants found in Germany, both native and cultivated . Schöffer's German Herbarius [i.e., the Gart de gesundheit], one of the first scientific books printed in a vernacular language, appeared in 1485. It is larger than its Latin brother, with nearly 400 plants illustrated, and its text is not related to that of the earlier Herbarius, being compiled, according to the introduction, by an anonymous amateur botanist, with the advice of Johann von Cube" (Raphael, p. 249). "The third of the fundamental botanical works, produced at Mainz towards the close of the fifteenth century, was the Hortus, or as it is more commonly called Ortus Sanitatis, printed by Jacob Meydenbach in 1491. It is in part a modified Latin translation of the German Herbarius, but it is not merely this, for it contains treatises on animals, birds, fishes and stones, which are almost unrepresented in the Herbarius. Nearly one-third of the figures of herbs are new. The rest are copied on a reduced scale from the German Herbarius . "The Ortus Sanitatis is very rich in pictures. The first edition opens with a full-page woodcut, modified from that at the beginning of the German Herbarius, and representing a group of figures, who appear to be engaged in discussing some medical or botanical problem. Before the treatise on Animals, there is another large engraving of three figures with a number of beasts at their feet, and before that on Birds, there is a lively picture with an architectural background, showing a scene which swarms with innumerable birds of all kinds, whose pec.

Folio. 129 ff. Rubricated with lombardic initials in red and blue. 19th century white paper boards with printed paper spine label. Stored in custom-made full green morocco gilt clamshell box. Considered unobtainable: the first edition of the notorious "Hammer of Witches", which laid down procedures for finding out and convicting witches. Called one of "the most vicious [.] book[s] in all of world literature" (Jerouschek, 500 Years of the Malleus Maleficarum, xxxi), it is certainly among the most misogynistic texts ever written and provided justification for the murder of tens of thousands of women in medieval Europe. Arguably, no book has been more damaging to the history of women than the Malleus. It "owes much of its notoriety to its infamous diatribe on the female sex. Kramer attempts to establish a direct connection between diabolic witchcraft and women throughout his treatise, and dedicates an entire chapter (Liber 1, Quaestio 6) exclusively to explaining why women are more prone to become witches than are men. In this chapter, he contends that women's nature is weaker than men's not only physically, but also psychologically, intellectually, and morally. Kramer argues that women's lascivious nature and moral and intellectual inferiority are the reasons for their greater proclivity to witchcraft. He [.] claims that the devil takes advantage of women's insatiable lust and inherent propensity to receive the influence of a disembodied spirit in order to harm Christian society" (Herzig, 27f.) While the Malleus was one of the most widespread texts of its time and went through no fewer than thirteen subsequent editions within three decades, complete copies of the first edition are of the utmost rarity, and only a few copies are found in American institutions. According to Rarebookhub, it has appeared at auction only once since 1925 (Sotheby's, Witchcraft and the Occult: Selected Books from the Collection of the late Robert Lenkiewicz, 2003, lot 295). - Upper cover stained and soiled, first three pages of text with some soiling and staining, neat repair to final printed leaf. All in all, a remarkably fine, clean copy. - From the famous Donaueschingen library of the princes of Fürstenberg with their printed spine title and shelfmark "298" on the spine label (repeated in pencil on recto of f. 1). - HC* 9238. Goff I-163. British Library IB.8581 (acquired in 1867 but not recorded in BMC). ISTC ii00163000. Coumont I4.2. Danet 16. Graesse III, 425. T. Herzig, "Witches, Saints, and Heretics: Heinrich Kramer's Ties with Italian Women Mystics", Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 1 (2006), pp. 24-55.

First edition. COINED THE PHRASE 'CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD'. First edition, and a fine copy in a contemporary binding, of Cesalpino's very rare work which coined the phrase "circulation of the blood" (circulatio sanguinis, f. 111v) and provided the theoretical basis for Harvey's experimental and quantitative treatment in De motu cordis (1628). "Cesalpino preceded Harvey in the discovery of the concept of the circulation, and Harvey must have known of his ideas" (Garrison-Morton). "Cesalpino's most important medical studies concern the anatomy and physiology of the movement of the blood. He gave a good description of the cardiac valves and of the pulmonary vessels connected to the heart, as well as of the minor blood circulation; he also recognized that the heart is the center of the circulation of the blood and accepted the existence of the traditional synanastomoses of the arteries with the veins. He did not, however, discover the major circulation (first demonstrated in 1628 by William Harvey)" (DSB). "No-one who reads Cesalpino impartially can deny the eminent part that he played in the discovery of the circulation of the blood" (Castiglioni, p. 438). Bound with the Cesalpino is the rare first edition of Patrizi's Discussionum Peripateticarum, a critical examination of the life and works of Aristotle. ABPC/RBH lists only three other copies in contemporary bindings sold at auction in the last 60 years: Norman copy, Christie's New York, March 18, 1998, lot 61, $36,800 ("title page stained at edges and with removed stamp"); Swann, May 24, 2001, lot 50, $33,350 ("wormholes through front cover & blank outer margin of opening leaves, title page stamped"); Friedman copy, Sotheby's New York, November 16, 2001, lot 29, $110,000 ("repaired tear to title page, spine head repaired, C4,5 guarded"). In their description of the Friedman copy, Sotheby's noted that "the only copy to surface at Anglo-American auctions in the past century was that of Haskell F. Norman." No copies of the Patrizi in auction records. "In Quaestio IIII (ff. 107-112) of his Peripatetic problems, Cesalpino first made the critical point, repeated in his later works, that blood flows in a perpetual movement into the heart from the veins and from the heart to the arteries. This statement, as Pagel has noted, marked "a breakaway from Galen and a stepping-stone for Harvey" (p. 171); Cesalpino "replaced [Galen's doctrine] by the more sophisticated idea of arterio-venous plexuses in which the blood is conveyed to the organs by the arteries, although part of it comes from the veins. With this Cesalpinus seems to have taken a progressive step in the direction of the truth - however far this is still removed from Harvey's idea of the closed arterio-venous circle" (p. 187). "Cesalpino examined contemporary medical and anatomical research in the light of Aristotelian rather than Galenic philosophy (the "Peripatetic" in this work's title alludes to Aristotle's Peripatetic school). His theory of the circulatio sanguinis as a rhythmic to-and-fro movement was based on the Aristotelian model of hot evaporating matter driven upward and then returning to its source after cooling; it emphasized both the continuity and circularity of the cardiovascular system and its essentially automatic, repeating character. Harvey used the same Aristotelian model in De motu cordis - as a student at the Aristotelian University of Padua, Harvey could hardly have escaped noticing Cesalpino's work, which was very popular with students in Italy and Germany" (Norman). "In 1571, Andrea Cesalpino (1524-1603), with whose medical works Harvey must have also been acquainted, published Peripateticarum Quaestionum Libri Quinque, a systematic book on the basis of the Aristotelian philosophical framework. In it, he described quite accurately the heart valves and the pulmonary vessels connected to the heart, as well as the pulmonary circulation. Although Cesalpino had not attained a thorough knowledge, founded on anatomical research, of the entire course of the blood, he speculated that the heart is the center of the circulatio sanguinis (blood circulation), a term that he coined, and specified that blood flows in a perpetual movement into the heart from the veins and from the heart to the arteries. He examined experimentally the difference between the blood flow in veins and that in arteries, and he deduced the presence of vasa in capillamenta resoluta, the invisible hair-like "capillaries," as he was the first to name them, between the two vascular networks; he did, however, acknowledge that these connections were "what the Greeks call anastomoses". "Cesalpino operated on living animals, exposed the pulsating arteries and accompanying veins, and investigated what ensued when he cut off the flow through them. He ascertained that when he ligated an artery, it bulged on the cardiac side, implying flow toward the periphery; in contrast, when he ligated a vein, the bulge ensued on the peripheral side, implying flow toward the heart. Moreover, in Quaestio IV of the Peripatetic Problems, the pulmonary circulation is identified unambiguously, although its function is considered to be one of cooling. In paragraph 11, Cesalpino states: "From the contact with cold air or water during its passage (through lungs or gills), nature has provided a cooling process. The lung, then, draws warm blood through the vein-like artery [vena arterialis, i.e., pulmonary artery] from the right ventricle of the heart and returns it through anastomoses to the arteria venosa [pulmonary vein(s)], which enters the left heart . Dissection corroborates this 'circulatio sanguinis' from the right ventricle of the heart through the lungs and to the left ventricle of the same. For, there are two vessels which connect into the right ventricle and two into the left. Of these two, one introduces blood only, while the other conducts it out with its valves constituted for that purpose. The vessel which leads in is the great vein on.

First edition. DIBNER 186: ONE OF THE GREAT RARITIES OF EARLY ZOOTOMICAL LITERATURE - PRESENTED BY THE AUTHOR IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION . First edition, first issue, of this sumptuous work, presented by the author in its year of publication and of his own death. This is "one of the great rarities of early zootomical literature" (Cole, p. 90), with illustrations considered comparable to those in Vesalius' Fabrica. "The unusual rarity of the first edition might be partially explained by the fact that a portion of the sheets of the first edition were reissued the following year by Gaspare Bindoni in Venice. Copies of this second issue, which is also rare, contain a cancel title and a different dedication leaf, changing the dedication to César, Duke of Vendôme, natural son of Henri IV" (Norman). "His book is the first devoted to the anatomy of an animal, and is one of the finest achievements of the heroic age of Anatomy" (Singer, The Evolution of Anatomy, p. 153, with three plates reproduced). "At the hands of Ruini the subject of equine anatomy jumped at a single bound from the blackest ignorance to relative perfection, the degree of which it is difficult to exaggerate" (Smith, The Early History of Veterinary Literature and its British Development, Vol. 1, p. 209). "As the author of the first book devoted exclusively to the structure of an animal other than man, Ruini ranks among the founders of both comparative anatomy and veterinary medicine. This is all the more remarkable as he was not a physician, or even a veterinarian, but a Bolognese aristocrat, senator, and high-ranking lawyer. Following the example of Vesalius, Ruini stressed the importance of "artful instruction" about all parts of the horse's body, the diseases that afflict them, and their cures. The first part of his work gives an exhaustive treatment of equine anatomy, with especially good accounts of the sense organs; it is illustrated with sixty-four full-page woodcuts, of which the last three, showing a stripped horse in a landscape setting, were clearly inspired by the Vesalian "muscleman" plates. The second part of the work deals with equine diseases and their cures from a traditional Hippocratic-Galenic standpoint. Some scholars, basing their arguments on Ruini's description of the horse's heart and blood vessels, believe that Ruini was active in the discovery of the greater and lesser circulatory systems. This is unlikely, but it is probable that he was one of many at that time who had a notion of the circulation of the blood" (Norman). ABPC/RBH list three other copies since Norman, two of which were in later bindings, but no presentation copies. Provenance: Inscribed on front free endpaper: 'Questo libro du donato al S[igno]r. Ascani Cospi dall'Autore l'Anno 1598 (i.e., 'given by the author, to Ascani Cospi in the year 1598'); 'Questo libro fu poi donato a Valerio Sampieri dal Sig[no]r Marchese Senatore Cospi l'Anno 1727' (i.e., 'given by a later Cospi, a Senator of Bologna, to Sampieri); signed at the bottom of the title page: 'Valerio Sampieri'. The Cospi were an ancient Bologna family who arrived there in 1350. The Sampieri were an influential Bolognese family, who had a well-known picture-gallery at their Palazzo Sampieri. "In the first volume, which deals mainly with anatomy, Ruini (ca. 1530-1598) includes notes on physiology that reflect his teleological Galenic approach. In the first book the morphology of the head is described in detail. The second book deals with the neck and its organs, the lungs, the heart, and the thoracic muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. The third book covers the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, intestines, peritoneum, and bladder. The structures of these organs and their positions are described, as are the lumbosacral region and its muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. The fourth book describes the genital system, and the fifth deals with the extremities. Volume II deals specifically with equine diseases and their cures. Explaining that he has followed the methods used by Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen to describe the human body, Ruini considers equine pathology, beginning with conditions of a general nature, such as fever, before progressing to descriptions of specific diseases. He considered it necessary to place pathology on a constitutional foundation because he believed that from knowledge of the horse's physical disposition one could more easily understand the nature of disease; also, from knowing the age of the horse, one could determine the appropriate treatment at any phase of an illness. At the beginning of the first book, Ruini discusses at length the four Galenic humors (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic) and ways of telling a horse's age. He then offers a detailed analysis of fever, distinguishing three types, giving general causes and a general cure, and discussing fevers of various origins. "The second book considers various types of horse in regard to humoral pathology, using criteria based essentially on the concept of the four qualities (hot, cold, moist, dry). Ruini then examines a series of "affections" of the brain: frenzy, rage or fury, and insanity, leading to convulsions and paralysis. The book concludes with the diseases of the neck. In the third book Ruini describes the diseases of the heart and the lungs; in the fourth, the afflictions of the digestive tract, from diarrhea to jaundice; and in the fifth, hernia, diseases of the testicles and penis, and problems of obstetrics. The sixth book deals with the diseases of the legs. "On the whole, Ruini's treatise was still closely bound to the Scholastic tradition. It does, however, show the effort made by its author, who must certainly have known the work of Vesalius, to produce a work that would manifest the new direction being taken by sixteenth-century anatomy. Because it was so traditional, his treatment of pathology, although minutely detailed, is less valuable than his study of anatomy. A pioneer in the la.

First edition. THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE EUROPEAN TREATISE ON OPTICS. First edition, rare, a copy with numerous early annotations, of the first comprehensive European treatise on optics, and the first work to contain descriptions of medieval laboratory instruments. Witelo (born ca. AD 1230) begins with the geometrical theorems required for the optical demonstrations of the remaining books. He details the essential features of optical systems, including the theory of the nature of light and its propagation, reflection by plain and curved mirrors, light, colour, perspective, the rainbow, etc. Witelo's principal source was the Optics of Ibn al-Haytham; the present text, Witelo's Perspectiva, is thus the first printed source for Ibn al-Haytham's work, which was not published until 1572 (when it accompanied a reprint of Witelo's text). "The most outstanding feature of Witelo's method was his combination of manual and technical skill with mathematics for quantitative experiments with instruments. An excellent example of the use of this combination in the construction of an instrument is his work on the parabolic mirror, with which Alhazen's writings as known in Latin showed no acquaintance . The problem was to construct a burning-mirror that would concentrate the sun's rays at a single focal point . Another important example of Witelo's method is his work on the measurement of the angles of refraction at the surfaces between air and water, air and glass, and glass and water, respectively . [Witelo gave a detailed account] of the construction of [an] instrument for measuring the angle between incident and emergent rays . Witelo used this instrument to show that not only white light, but also colours travelled in straight lines in a single uniform medium . Having given an account of the refraction of light at different surfaces, Witelo went on to discuss the properties of convex and concave lenses . A more successful application of his knowledge of refraction was his study of the rainbow . The only source of knowledge of the rainbow he acknowledged by name was Aristotle's Meteorology, but his chapters contain much that is not in this work . In the atmosphere he held that drops of water would condense as spheres . Rays from the sun would meet the drops on the outside of the mist; and, of the rays falling on each drop, some would be reflected and some would be refracted . as by a spherical lens . The rainbow would be seen in the rays which, after going out from the sun to the mist in one cone, were reflected back to the eye of the observer on a shorter cone with the same base and axis . [Witelo tested his theory] by means of experiments with refraction through crystals and spherical vessels filled with water . [Witelo] made some admirably original observations on the more purely psychological aspects of vision. These related chiefly to direct perception and the effects of association and reasoning on vision, and such problems as illusions, visual beauty, and the perception of distance and size and of the third dimension of space" (Crombie). This work remained an important textbook for over 300 years: it had a great impact on the works of Regiomontanus, Leonardo da Vinci and Copernicus, and was the basis of Kepler's Ad Vitellionem paralipomena of 1604. ABPC/RBH record the sale of seven complete copies at auction: Pierre Berge 2019 (modern binding, last gathering washed and repaired); Christie's NY 2008 (Dunham-Green copy, 19th century binding); Sotheby's 2002 (De Vitry copy, later vellum-backed carta rustica); Sotheby's NY 2001 (binding restored, dampstaining and worming); Sotheby's NY 1993 (Dunham copy); Sotheby's 1981 (Honeyman copy, dampstained); Sotheby's 1973. Provenance: TheChurch of Santa Maria al Monte dei Cappuccini in Turin (inscription on title 'S[anta] Maria Conventus Montis Capuchine Fratrum Minor (conformator?)'). Numerous marginalia in a different hand by a careful and attentive reader highlighting the text (slightly cropped, indicating they were made before the work was bound). "By far the most important optical treatise in Witelo's day was Ibn al-Haytham's Optics or De aspectibus, rendered into Latin by an unidentified translator late in the twelfth or early in the thirteenth century. Although Witelo never refers to Ibn al-Haytham by name, there can be no doubt that the latter was his chief source: Witelo normally treats the same topics in the same fashion and sometimes even in the same words; occasionally he omits or inserts a topic, and often he seeks to clarify or supplement one of Ibn al-Haytham's points by further elaboration or an improved demonstration, but in very few respects does he escape the general framework inherited through the latter's Optics. "Yet other influences are evident. It is beyond dispute that Witelo used the Optica of Ptolemy, whose table of refraction he reproduces; the Catoptrica of Hero, whose principle of minimum distance he employs to explain reflection at equal angles: and the De speculis comburentibus (anonymous in the thirteenth century. but now attributed to Ibn al-Haytham), from which he drew his analysis of paraboloidal mirrors. There can be little doubt that he also was familiar with the widely circulated Optica (De visu) of Euclid, Catoptrica (De speculis) of Pseudo-euclid, De aspectibus of al-KindÄ«, and the physiological and psychological works of Galen, Hunayn ibn IshÄ q, Ibn SÄ«na; and Ibn Rushd. As for Latin authors, Alexander Birkenmajer has argued that Witelo was strongly infuenced by Robert Grosseteste's De lineis angulis et figuris and Roger Bacon's De multiplicatione specierum. In addition, it is certain that he knew Bacon's Opus maius and possible that he knew John Pecham's Perspectiva communis. Witelo also relied on a number of ancient mathematical works, including those of Euclid and Apollonius, and perhaps of Eutocius, Archimedes, Theon of Alexandria, and Pappus. "Witelo's Perspectiva is an immense folio volume . The scope of the Perspectiva is.

Hardcover. Etat : Fine. Bound in 17th c. calf, the boards gilt-ruled in compartments with ornamental tools at the corners and a large stamp of the Tudor arms at the center of each board (hinges and endcaps restored, corners bumped, later label, lacking ties). Inscriptions: In the Shepheards Calender 1. Contemporary signature of Roger Collings on p. 1; 2. Inscription in Latin on title page, "To the library of Lord John Bond as a gift by M[onsieur] Bloncq [i.e. Blanc] A.D. 1627". 3. Also on t.p., "Lady Carew" and "June 27, 1669" (perhaps Mary Morice of Wirrington (d. 1698), Lady Carew). 4. Unidentified armorial stamp on verso of t.p. For condition of contents, see individual entries below. 5. Another -and quite marvelous- contemporary inscription on the third preliminary leaf of the Shepheards Calender: "This is Robard Batmans Booke and he that steale et shall be hanged vpon A Roke as Hy as he cane loke.". I. THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER. London: Printed by Iohn Windet, for Iohn Harrison the yonger, dwelling in Pater-noster roe, at the signe of the Anger, 1591. Quarto: [4], 52 lvs. Collation: *4, A-N4 (3 preliminary leaves supplied and genuine). FOURTH EDITION. (1st ed. pub. 1579). Title within woodcut border (McKerrow & Ferguson 198). The text is illustrated with 12 woodcut vignettes, one for each month. Restorations to inner margin of title with some loss to the lefthand portion of the woodcut border, small repair to upper, outer corner (no loss), 3 preliminary leaves following title supplied from a shorter copy (blank lower margin restored.) The woodcut for April shows Queen Elizabeth and her entourage. "This and the edition of 1586 are counterparts of each other. The illustrations are printed from the same blocks; the type, however, was reset, there being slight differences in spelling, etc., and the printer's ornaments at the foot of the eclogues are different." (Langland to Wither, No. 229, p. 199-200) "Published in 1579, a decade before 'The Faerie Queene', this book of pastorals established Spenser as the leading poet of his generation. Its editor, one "E.K." (never identified but clearly someone associated with Spenser), heralded the work as a major literary event and its author as 'our new poet.' It was reprinted four times in Spenser's lifetime and evoked imitations and admiring comments almost from the date of its publication. Spenserians and traditional literary historians still take 'The Shepheardes Calender' at E.K.'s valuation and treat it (not without reason) as inaugurating the great age of Elizabethan poetry. It was the first set of English pastorals in the European tradition, and in emulating Virgil's Eclogues, it self-consciously inaugurated a poetic career on the model of Virgil's-one that would move from a book of eclogues to a national epic."(Alpers, Pastoral and the Domain of Lyric in Spenser's Shepheardes Calender) "'The Shepheardes Calender'was entered into theStationers'register on 5 December 1579 and was published by the protestant publisherHugh Singletonsoon after that date, as the poem bears the imprint 1579 (indicating that it must have appeared before the end of February). The'Calender'was a popular work and was reprinted in 1581, 1586, 1591, and 1597, demonstrating thatSpenserdid make an impact as 'our new poet'. It contains twelve poems, complete with prefatory comments and notes byE. K., which may or may not have been written bySpenserhimself andGabriel Harvey, and a series of emblematic woodcuts of allegorical significance. The poems describe events in the lives of a series of fictional shepherds and vary from apparently personal laments on the nature of loss and unrequited love to stringent ecclesiastical satire and attacks on corruption and court patronage. They comment on the nature of love and devotion, the pains of exile, praise for the queen, forms of worship, the duties of church ministers, forms of poetry, the merits of protestantism and Catholicism, and impending death. Equally important is the showy technical p.

First Lambin edition, large paper copy, 3 cm larger in both dimensions than copies on regular paper and uniquely, according to Brunet, with contemporary colouring, in a splendid Parisian gold-tooled morocco binding of the period. Brunet writes of "cette première édition estimée du Lucrèce de Lambin" and describes at length this unique copy, on large paper, with contemporary colouring: "Un exemplaire de l'édition de 1563, en Grand Papier (avec les capitales du commencement de chaque livre enluminées), et relié en maroquin olive à compartiments, a été vendu 15 liv. chez M. Dent, qui, selon le Repertorium bibliogr., 246, l'avait payé 40 liv. Jusque-là on ne connaissait point le Grand Papier de cette édition estimée." The French classical scholar and philologist Denys Lambin (1516-1572) was one of the greatest critical editors of his time; his "editorial work expresses a deep sympathy for his subject and the prefaces and notes are a monument of erudition and fine vigorous Latinity" (PMM). The edition was likely initiated by Guillaume Rouillé, the prodigious merchant-publisher of Lyon, and published in short-term partnership with his nephew in Paris, as a means of getting him established there. This is the edition of Lucretius cited in Printing and the Mind of Man, where it is described as "one of the grandest and most moving poems in the Latin language". "Of very few languages can it be said that the first surviving major poem in it is an exposition of a philosophical system of considerable subtlety, but first or last, Lucretius's 'On the Nature of Things' would have been a unique contribution to any literature. In it the atomic theory, the most vivid and tender depictions of nature, and a sense of the beauty and rhythm of words which triumphs over the early unsophisticated form of the Latin Hexameter, all those combine in the most astonishing way to produce one of the grandest and most moving poems in the Latin language." More recently, Lucretius's poem was the subject of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, a 2011 book by Stephen Greenblatt, which was winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and 2011 National Book Award for Nonfiction. The pattern of gold-tooling on this sumptuous binding was popular in Paris in the 1560s and 70s and several binders used variations on it, such as the binders who worked for Francis II and Charles IX, and for Thomas Mahieu and others. As styles are easy to copy and similar designs were often embellished with tools belonging to totally separate binders, attribution to a specific binder or atelier is impossible in this case. For example, one of the tools is closely similar to a tool used by Wotton's Binder III, but it is not identical and so this binding cannot be attributed to that workshop. Henry Davis Gift II, 14, illustrates a copy of Pausanias, 1551, bound for Thomas Mahieu with similar but again not identical tooling. Nevertheless, the binding exhibits the characteristic craftsmanship of the most accomplished Parisian binders of the period. Provenance: John Dent (1760-1826), his sale, London 1827, lot 694 ("This is one of the most beautiful books in Mr. Dent's Library"); Bibliothèque Henri Béraldi [1849-1931], Paris, 1934, Première partie, no. 20; Maurice Burrus (1882 1959), with his bookplate; Thierry de Maigret Vente aux Enchères, Drouot 27 Nov 2013, lot 86. Adams L1659; Printing and the Mind of Man 87. Quarto (252 x 185 mm). Contemporary olive-green morocco over pasteboard, tooled in gold with fillets, gouges and lines, spine with five gilt-ruled raised bands and six compartments with gilt fleurons and leaf sprays, blue and yellow headbands, board edges with two-line gilt rule and hatched sections, turn-ins unruled, white endpapers, edges gilt and gauffered; title lettering in gold within central oval on upper cover added at a later date. Housed in a custom olive morocco fleece-lined folding case. Title within large woodcut historiated border, woodcut headpieces and initials, all with fine contemporary hand-colouring heightened with gold. Discreet small repair to front joint at head, two spots to title page, else internally fresh and clean, a fine copy.

Rare first edition illustrated with the large and detailed woodcut world map, only the second edition overall of Macrobius's influential neoplatonist commentary on Cicero, here retaining the original wooden boards and with ten illuminated initials. Macrobius's commentary on an excerpt from Cicero's otherwise mostly lost De re publica - itself modelled on the "Myth of Er" from Plato's Republic - was hugely popular throughout the Middle Ages. It addresses not only the nature of the soul and the divine but the structure of the heavens and the celestial spheres, allowing Macrobius to comment on everything from philosophy to physics. The map is integral to the text, illustrating Macrobius's geographical theories in the first and second books; such a map is found in about 100 surviving manuscripts of the work. It is a circular zonal world map, featuring a great southern land mass labelled "Antipodum, nobis, incognita" ("the Antipodes unknown to us"), one of the small number of old maps published in printed formats that gave important impetus to the Renaissance acceptance that the earth was spherical and that antipodean lands existed and might be inhabited. This important edition is reasonably well held in European libraries, ISTC listing fifty-five holding institutions worldwide (seven copies noted as imperfect), but only four copies in the US. It is exceedingly rare in commerce. Indeed, this appears to be the only copy listed in Rare Book Hub in over 100 years, first appearing in the Walter Leighton sale in 1920, resurfacing in Maggs Bros. catalogue 582 in 1933 (item 23,"original wooden boards covered with leather", surely the same copy), next in the stock of the legendary bookseller H. P. Kraus, and finally at the Rosenberg estate sale in April 2021. No other copy is listed there. As noted in previous catalogue descriptions, the wooden boards were covered in red leather, rather clumsily, sometime in the 19th century, a binding which had unfortunately broken by the time of the Rosenberg sale. The leather has now been removed, revealing an early manuscript title on the front board, and the binding restored as near as practicable to its original condition. According to Dibdin, this edition contains largely the same material as the editio princeps published by Jenson in 1472, but with the addition of the map. This edition also contains Macrobius's Saturnalia, another imitation of Plato which records scientific and literary conversation held during a fictional dinner party. Provenance: ownership inscription and shelf mark, apparently 17th-century, of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a church in Padua ("Bibliothecae Con[ven]tus S[anctae] Mariae Gratiar[um] Patavij Ord[inis] Praed[icatorum] | ad dexteram num[er]o: 198", partly erased) at the foot of the first leaf. From the stock of Walter James Leighton (1850-1917), trading as J. & J. Leighton, his sale, Sotheby's, 2-5 November 1920, lot 3425; probably item 23, Maggs Bros. catalogue 582, 1933; later in the collection of the New York art dealers and book collectors Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg, acquired from H. P. Kraus, New York, 4 May 1955. HC 10427*; BMC VII 968; BSB-Ink M-2; Bod-inc M-002; IGI 5924; Klebs 638.2; Campbell (Maps) 87; Goff M-9; ISTC im00009000; Dibdin Spenceriana 304; Shirley 13. See also Ford BPH 139 (third edition) and Stillwell, Science, I.74 (first edition). Super-chancery folio (309 x 205 mm). 191 leaves (of 192, without initial blank). Original oak boards rebacked to style with pigskin, relined with old endpapers, clasps and catches replaced. Greek and Roman types. 10 illuminated initials in red, blue, and green, red and blue Lombard initials, woodcut map and other diagrams. Dampstaining chiefly in the first quarter of the book, some other staining, some wormtracks, one initial partially worn away, the heavy paper stock still crisp, a very good copy presenting well in the original oak boards.

Hardcover. Etat : Good. Three parts in one volume, folio (289x190 mm). Collation: [π]4, a-z4, Aa-Bb4, Cc6; A4, B6; aa4, B-R4, S6. [8], CCX [i.e. CCXII]; XX; CXLV, [3] pages (with errors in numbering). Complete with fol. S6 blank. Gothic type. Woodcut printer's device on fol. S5r. Twenty-four full-page woodcut anatomical and medical illustrations (fols. d4v, f2v, g3v, g4r, h1v, i4r, k4v, l1r, l2v, l3r, l4v, m1v, m2r, m3v, m4r, n2r, n4v, o1r, o4v, q3v, u1r, x2v, x4v, A1r), several illustrations of surgical instruments (fols. A2r-B6v); 36 chiromancy hands (fols. aa2r-H2v), eleven double physiognomic portraits (fols. H3r-K2r); a portrait of Johannes ab Indagine by Hans Baldung Grien dated 1540 (fol. M3v), thirty-three astrological diagrams and allegorical chariots (fols. N1r-R3r). The copy is complete with the two fugitive sheets, featuring two extremely rare folding woodcut plates (382x265 mm) representing an anatomical figure showing internal organs – the 'viscera-manikin' – and a skeleton (see below). Woodcut animated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled half-pigskin, over wooden boards. Spine with three raised bands, inked title on upper cover, traces of clasps. A good copy. Repairs to the margins of the title-page and the final leaves, tiny wormholes on a few leaves, some marginal stains, tear repaired to one of the folding plates, contemporary annotations on the verso of the last leaf and rear pastedown.First edition of this collection of texts, which includes – along with the German translations of the famous treatise on surgical instruments by Albucasis (Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi, 936-1013) and the Chiromantia by Johannes ab Indagine (d. 1537) – Gersdorff's Feldtbuch, the first book to illustrate actual surgical procedures and one of the very first illustrated books on surgery to ever be published. It is arguably the most advanced surgical manual of its time, containing original information on amputations, early anaesthesia, and the treatment of gunshot wounds, all accompanied by the very best surgical illustrations of the period. The Feldtbuch is the third German-language book on surgery after Heinrich von Pfolsprundt's Buch der Bündth-Ertznei (1460) and Hieronymus Brunschwig's Buch der Cirurgia (1497); it also predates the first French publication in the genre, that of Ambroise Paré, which appeared in 1545. Gersdorff's work was first printed in Strasbourg by Johann Schott in 1517 and was an immediate success. It was reprinted in Strasbourg in 1526, 1528, 1530, and 1535 (all editions in quarto) and was also republished in Augsburg by Heinrich Steiner in 1530 and 1532 (both folio editions). "The practical nature of Gersdorff's book and its fine illustrations caused it to become very popular and it was frequently referred to, widely quoted and freely plagiarized. The work went through at least twelve editions between the time of its first publication in 1517 and the early seventeenth century. The book also appeared in several Latin and Dutch editions" (Heirs of Hippocrates, 149). Little is known about the early life of Hans von Gersdorff, one of the most noted German surgeons of the late fifteenth and early sixteen centuries. It is not known how or where he received his education, but it is evident that he was especially well-known for limb amputations, of which he is reputed to have performed at least two hundred. "Gersdorff was a military surgeon who had gained wide experience during the course of some forty years of campaigning and was an expert in the care and treatment of battlefield injuries. His work is divided into four books which treat of anatomy, surgery, leprosy, and glossaries of anatomical terms, diseases, and medications [.] Gersdorff emphasized a well-founded knowledge of anatomy because the surgeon was frequently called upon to deal with extensive bodily trauma. He derived his anatomy primarily from the Arabic authors and works of Guy de Chauliac" (History of Medical Illustration, London 19. Book.

FIRST EDITION. TP + [i]-[iii] = Præfatio + [iv]-[viii] = Preface by Edward Wright + [ix] = Verborum + [x]-[xiv] = Index + [1]-240, Folio, 282 x 188 mm; 11?" x 7½ ". First Edition. Printing and the Mind of Man, 107; Dibner, Heralds of Science 54. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.With woodcut caduceus device (McKerrow 119) on title page, large woodcut arms of the author on verso, 88 woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text (four full-page), large folding woodcut diagram (lightly browned) at page 200, fine decorative woodcut capitals, head- and tail-pieces. First edition of the first great work of experimental physics published in England; a scientific sturdy of electricity and magnetism. By his commitment to subjecting all theories to experiment, Gilbert became "among the first to initiate the experimental method of science" (Dibner). This work is one of the finest examples of inductive philosophy and even more remarkable for its publication two decades prior to Bacon's Novum Organum, where that method was actually explained for the first time. Throughout the De Magnete Gilbert discussed and usually dismissed previous theories concerning magnetic phenomena and offered observational data and experiments which would support his own theories. Most of the experiments are so well described that the reader can duplicate them if he wishes, and the examples of natural occurrences which support his theories are well identified. When new instruments are introduced (for example the versorium, to be used in identifying electrics), directions for their construction and use are included" (DSB).Gilbert's work is "the first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research:" (PMM). Published only after eighteen years of personal study and experimentation, this book has Gilbert's new discoveries marked in the margins with large and small asterisks to denote whether they were significant or minor. Among the 21 major and the 178 minor discoveries is the conclusion that the earth is one large magnet (an assertion that led Galileo to study magnetism), as well as the invention of the versorium, his electroscope or electrometer, the first instrument devised to measure electrical phenomena. His magnetic theory enabled him to explain the behavior of the compass-needle, the dip-needle, the magnetic condition of vertical masses of iron, and the magnetic properties of heated iron bars when allowed to cool while lying in the magnetic meridian. In Book 2, which was intended as a digression into the importance of amber ("electrum") to magnetic studies, Gilbert coined the terms "electricity", "electric force" and "electric attraction" - clearly establishing his reputation as the founder of electrical science.Gilbert also claimed another, less coveted kind of scientific repute by coming to see magnetism as the explanation for almost all phenomena. This led Francis Bacon to attack him in his Sylva Sylvarum (1626) as being "one of those people so taken up with their pet subject of research that they could only see the whole universe transposed into the terms of it" (Butterfield, p. 56). This singular, scientific phenomena persists into our own days with numerous scientists currently describing major elements of the universe as working "exactly like the computer". All known copies have numerous ink emendations (not noted in the errata) which some have suggested shows that Gilbert saw the edition through the press personally. The present copy has manuscript corrections on pp. [vi], [x], 11, 14, 22, 39, 42, 47, 68, 130, 200 and 221. Contemporary limp vellum with overlapping edges. Spine lettered manuscript but faded. Foot of spine expertly repaired. Newer endleaves. Title lightly browned with a few tiny repairs, final few leaves evenly browned with lower margins repaired, some spotting. Cloth folding case. Overall, a lovely copy. PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

First edition in German, splendidly bound, of Fuchs's monumental herbal. This vernacular edition was extensively revised and enlarged with six additional illustrations and a new index. With these changes and its stronger medicinal focus, "the book's nature and the function of pictures within were transformed" (Kusukawa, p. 133). First printed in Latin the year before as De historia stirpium, this work is "one of the landmarks of pre-Linnaean herbal-botanical literature" (Norman), not least for containing the first printed glossary of botanical terms. It encompasses over 400 German species and 100 foreign species of plants, most of which were drawn from samples in Fuchs's personal garden, even those of typically exotic origin. For each plant, Fuchs provides a detailed description of their characteristics, habitats, uses, and relevant appearances in classical and medieval accounts. Of particular note is the inclusion of several recently discovered species from the New World, such as pumpkin, watermelon, chilli peppers, and maize (which he believed was native to Turkey). By describing these for the first time in print, Fuchs is said to have "initiated the history of some American plants" (Hunt). For the illustrations, Fuchs employed three artists: Albrecht Meyer, who drew the plants from life, Heinrich Füllmaurer, who transferred the images to woodblocks, and Veit Rudolph Speckle, who undertook the woodcutting. Very unusually for the period, portraits of these men appear at the end of the book - "one of the earliest examples of such a tribute paid to artists in a printed book" (PMM). The woodcuts of the plants are to scale and include their root systems and, often, sample-specific details such as leaves damaged by insects. They "established a standard of plant illustration which has been followed until our own day" (ibid.). In his introduction to the first German edition, Fuch explains that he revised the Latin work specifically for the medical needs of the German-speaking "common man" ("der gemeine Mann"), and that he had spared no expense in doing so. Some of the formal apparatus of the text was abbreviated to accommodate longer descriptions of the plants, and a new index of disease names in German was added to facilitate finding remedies. "There was a stronger focus on medicinal effects of plants: arguments in the Latin text appealing to pictures for the identification of the Petasites, for instance, disappeared, but the medicinal virtues of the Pestilenzwurz were extolled. The exotic plants were described as having become common in the German lands. It was no longer a universal history of plants for the Galenic good doctor", but a book for a much broader audience (Kusukawa, p. 133). The six new woodcuts for this edition illustrate "Hunerbis", "Spitziger Wegerich", "klein Schlangen Kraut", "Knabenkrautweible", "das Mittel", and "Kuchenschell". The blind-stamped design on this binding reflects the contemporary German taste for finely detailed ornamental rolls arranged to form a sequence of frames. The tools on the covers are not recorded in EBDB and therefore cannot be attributed to a specific workshop. The biblical scenes appearing here (the crucifixion, resurrection, fall of man, and Nehushtan) were popular designs at the time and especially during the second half of the 16th century; heads in roundels were also popular, although this specific roll is unusual in depicting both men and women. Two comparable bindings featuring similar rolls arranged in a similar fashion are held by the Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio in Bologna (shelf numbers 4.D.I.12 and 7.L.III.10, respectively produced in Saxony and Southern Germany). The content leaves bear a watermark depicting a Baselstab ("rod of Basel"); this symbol was introduced by paper makers in Basel in the 1520s and is typical of paper produced in that city in this period. The watermark on the endpapers, depicting a heraldic eagle with wings displayed and within a circular border, is not recorded in Bernstein, Briquet, or WZIS; the closest example we have traced is WZISDE1185-S2059_40, dated c.1650. Provenance: from the library of the German doctor Christian Daniel Jung of Kirchen (1801-1858), with his ownership inscription on the title page. Jung studied mathematics, physics, medicine and chemistry, later working as a general practitioner, surgeon, and obstetrician. He also wrote on history, publishing a work describing a public execution carried out in Kirchen in 1785 (Letzten Hochnotpeinlichen Halsgerichts, 1785). Adams 1107; Cleveland Herbal Collection 62; Nissen 659; Norman 1808; Printing and the Mind of Man 69 (Latin ed.); VD16 F 3243. Sachiko Kusukawa, Picturing the Book of Nature: Image, Text, and Argument in Sixteenth-Century Human Anatomy and Medical Botany, 2012. Folio (240 x 800 mm). Contemporary German blind-stamped calf over bevelled boards, spine with 5 blind-ruled raised bands, later paper label lettered in manuscript in second compartment, covers triple blind-ruled to a panel design, outer border with roll of biblical scenes, including the fall of man (lettered "peccatum"), the crucifixion ("satisfatio"), the resurrection ("iustificacio"), the Nehushtan (unlettered), second border with roll of 5 heads in roundels and vases, third border with tendrils and leaves, central panel with same roll of biblical scenes enclosed by bands with fleurons, engraved brass clasps and catch-plates. Collates: 6 6 4 a-z6 A-Z6 Aa-Zz6 AA6 BB8; 444 leaves, complete. Full-page woodcut portrait of Fuchs on title page verso, woodcut portraits of Füllmaurer, Meyer, and Speckle on leaf BB7 verso, 517 woodcuts of plants, of which 2 printed without ink - a curious printer's error - resulting in blind impression only on Bb2 verso and BbX recto, printer's device on title page and verso of last leaf, woodcut initials. Binding sometime discreetly repaired at spine ends, joints, and corners, original clasps and straps reattached and anchor plates renewed, title.

*** Un recueil de poésies sur l'amour, dans une magnifique reliure de l'époque, superbement calligraphié et orné de grandes initiales, de culs de lampes et de fleurons peints en or et en couleurs. Il est daté, au f. 27v, de 1575. On y repère des poésies de Ronsard, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Desportes, Jean Bastier de La Péruse, Clément Marot . D'autres sont inédites. Sur le premier plat de la reliure figurent les initiales "I. D. M." et la devise "Non sans regret" et sur le second plat, "A.D.G." et "Tousjours loyal". Tout au long de ce recueil on retrouve ces devises et initiales : 3 fois pour "I. D. M.", écrit aussi "J. D. M." et 6 fois pour "A.D.G." Tout laisse penser que certaines de ces poésies anonymes sont des mystérieux "A.D.G." et/ou à "J. D. M." Un examen attentif du volume nous permet de trouver au moins un nom. Au verso du second feuillet, figure à l'envers, sans doute par décharge : "Toujours loyal" et la signature : A. de Gandt. Ce nom nous oriente vers le Nord de la France ou la Flandre méridionale. Une hypothèse confirmée par le style de la reliure. Notons par ailleurs, que l'on peut lire dans ce recueil au moins 5 sentences en espagnol (f. 36v, 84 87, 93, 123). Certaines poésies destinées au chant, ou "chansons", qui figurent dans ce volume ont été mises en musique par Thomas Créquillon, Claude Goudimel, Jehan Chardavoine. et on en ignore toujours les auteurs. Ce A. de Gandt pourrait bien être de ceux-ci. Notons par ailleurs que certaines des poésies inédites de ce recueil ont été écrites par une femme. "Le début de la décennie 1570-1580 constitue un tournant de l'histoire de la poésie en France. Au moment où l'école de la Pléiade voyait disparaître quelques-uns de ses premiers membres, une nouvelle génération de poètes inspirée par l'exemple de Philippe Desportes apparut, qui allait quelque peu concurrencer la domination de Ronsard. Une nouvelle esthétique mondaine et néopétrarquisante, teintée de néoplatonisme, se diffusa dans la poésie. Son public n'était plus composé de savants humanistes mais des gens de la Cour et des "salons" ou cercles qui se multipliaient autour de personnages influents. L'une des particularités de la poésie produite dans le cadre de ces "salons" est d'avoir souvent fait l'objet de copies manuscrites, conservées dans des recueils plus ou moins homogènes, qu'on peut désigner comme des albums. Rarement autographes, les poèmes consignés sont le témoignage des échanges littéraires, philosophiques ou musicaux de leurs participants ou de contributeurs extérieurs. Surtout, les albums constitués au début des années 1570 présentent souvent des versions manuscrites antérieures à leur diffusion imprimée. Ils informent ainsi autant l'histoire sociale et l'étude des pratiques culturelles, que l'histoire littéraire, en éclairant un chapitre déterminant de leur génétique textuelle." François Rouget, Poésie et sociabilité en France vers 1570. Voici les pièces que nous avons pu attribuer : -Thomas Créquillon, "Oncques amour ne fut sans grand langueur" (f. 36v). - Jean Bastier de La Péruse, "Amour n'est autre chose" (36v). - Claude Goudimel, "Je souffre passion d'une amour forte" (60). - Clément Marot, "Secourez-moi Madame par amours" (62v). "Je ne me confesseray point" (34v). - Philippe Desportes, "Blessé d'une plaie inhumaine" (101). - Mellin de Saint-Gelais, "Combien est heureuse la peine de celer une flamme amoureuse" (52). - Ronsard, "Las ! Je n'eusse jamais pensé" (71v), "Qui veult sçavoir amour & sa nature" (117). - On retrouve "Tu t'en vas ma mignone" (139) que l' dans le "Recueil et eslite de plusieurs belles chansons joyeuses, honnestes et amoureuses" (1576) de Jehan Chardavoine, qui l'a mis en musique. Les initiales "J. D. M." apparaissent sur les feuillets : 11v, 36, 93. Celles de "A.D.G." : f. 16, 23v, 27v, 52, 141v, 158. Provenances : - Catalogue de la bibliothèque de Mme Théophile Belin, I, 1936, n°37. - Bibliothèque poétique de Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller, 2011, n° 102. *** In-4 de (2), 163 ff. Maroquin rouge, dos orné, plats richement ornés d'une plaque azurée avec un médaillon central peint en noir, écoinçons, fers azurés en coins, filets dorés en encadrement d'une bande peinte en noir et de filets dorés, tranches dorées. (Reliure de l'époque.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * A manuscript collection of love poems from 1575. There are poems by Ronsard, Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Clément Marot and Philippe Desportes. Others are unpublished and their authors are perhaps those who composed this manuscript. I think it's a man and a woman whose motto is here 'Not without regret" and whose initials are 'I.D.M.', and on the other side 'Always loyal' and with the initials 'A.D.G.' One can find the name of this 'A.D.G.' here upside down 'A. de Gandt', a family name from the North of France or from southern Flanders. - -.

Second edition, first dated edition; small 4to (leaves measuring 19.4 x 13.8 cm); occasional minor coeval underlining and marginalia to earlier part of text, very light faded stain to lower margin at gutter throughout (not affecting text), bibliographical clippings tipped onto front endpapers; bound in antique style calf; [96]pp; A8, B4, C8, D4, E8, F4, G-H6, with the final blank leaf (H6) present ff. The scarce first dated edition of Erasmus' Moriae Encomium, an important work of humanist rhetoric which satirised the corruption and religious hypocrisy of Europe's elite. Printed two months after the undated Paris edition by Gilles de Gourmont, of which only a handful of copies survive, all of them in institutional libraries. The present edition, almost as rare, is not merely a reprint of the Paris edition, but contains additional material including an address and laudatory letter to Erasmus by his fellow humanist Jakob Wimpfeling. All early editions are exceedingly scarce, with only three appearing at auction in the last 100 years that we could trace. The first English translation was not published until 1549, although there had been Czech, French and German editions prior to this. An excellent example of a classic work of paradoxical satire, in which folly is personified and holds up a mirror to mankind. An extremely significant work both in its own right and for its influence on the Protestant Reformation in general. Sir Thomas More's own magnum opus Utopia was at least in part written as a response to Moriae Encomium. 'The Praise of Folly was written when Erasmus was staying in the house of Thomas More in the winter of 1509 10. Its title is a delicate and complimentary play on the name of his host: its subject matter is a brilliant, biting satire on the folly to be found in all walks of life. The book stemmed from the decision which Erasmus had taken when he left Rome to come to England, that no form of preferment could be obtained at the sacrifice of his freedom to read, think and write what he liked. The work was first secretly printed in Paris, and, as in other cases, its immediate success safeguarded him from the consequences of his audacity. Whenever tyranny or absolute power threatened, The Praise of Folly was re-read and reprinted. It is a sign of what was in the air that Milton found it in every hand at Cambridge in 1628. His inherent scepticism has led people to call Erasmus the father of eighteenth-century rationalism, but his rationalist attitude is that of perfect common sense, to which tyranny and fanaticism were alike abhorrent' (PMM 43). Despite the risky nature of the work and its explicit and implicit attacks on established religion and authority figures of the time, its rapid popularity ensured that the author and the work were left unmolested by church and state, at least until Erasmus' death in 1536, after which his previously untainted reputation was diminished. By 1559, all of his works had been proscribed under the insidious Index Auctorum et Librorum Prohibitorum. Bezzel 1298; cf.PMM 43; Vander Haeghen 122.

First edition. DIBNER 38: THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE TREATISE ON THE PYROTECHNIC ARTS. First edition, very rare in contemporary binding, of the "first comprehensive treatise on the 'pyrotechnic' or fire-using arts, including mining, metallurgy, applied chemistry, gunpowder, military arts and fireworks. Virtually all of Biringuccio's descriptions are original, based upon first-hand information garnered during his various employments as a mine and forge operator, director of the Sienese mint, cannon caster and fortification builder, director of building construction at the Duomo, and head of the papal foundry and munitions works. His account of the adaptation of metals to use by alloying, working and casting excels those of Ercker and Agricola, and his sections on glass, steel and the purification of salts by crystallization were copied almost verbatim in Agricola's De re metallica (1556). Biringuccio's work is important to art history for its description of the Renaissance methods of casting medallions, statues and bells; and to the history of printing for containing the earliest known account of typecasting. His contributions to chemistry include the first account of silver amalgamation and liquation, the earliest mention of cobalt blue and manganese, and the first description of antimony, antedating that of Basil Valentine by fifty years" (Norman catalogue). It "was written for the practicing metallurgist, foundryman, dyer, type-founder, glass-maker, and maker of gunpowder, fireworks and chemicals used in warfare" (Dibner).The woodcuts show the use of various furnaces, pulleys and tools, and illustrate the making of bells, pottery and firearms. Biringuccio was "one of the principal exponents of the experimental method" (DSB II, 143). He entered the service of the ruler of Siena, Pandolfo Petrucci, undertook a period of travel in Germany, then the metallurgical capital of Europe, was involved in such politically useful activities as the manufacture of guns, gunpowder, and counterfeit money. He later served the Dukes of Parma, Ferrara, and the Venetian Republic. ABPC/RBH list only two copies in contemporary binding since the Kenney sale in 1966. "Biringuccio's reputation derives from a single work, his Pirotechnia, published posthumously in 1540. The work is divided into ten books, which deal with (1) metallic ores; (2) the 'semiminerals' (including mercury, sulfur, alum, arsenic, vitriol, several pigments, gems, and glass); (3) assaying and preparing ores for smelting; (4) the parting of gold and silver, both with nitric acid and with antimony sulfide or sulfur; (5) alloys of gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin; (6) the art of casting large statues and guns; (7) furnaces and methods of melting metals; (8) the making of small castings; (9) miscellaneous pyrotechnical operations (including alchemy; the distillation of acids, alcohol, and other substances; the working of a mint 'both honestly and with profit' the goldsmith, silversmith, and ironsmith; the pewterer; wire-drawing; mirror-making; pottery; and bricks); and (10) the making of saltpeter, gunpowder, and fireworks for warfare and celebration . The Pirotechnia contains eighty-three woodcuts, the most useful being those depicting furnaces for distillation, bellows mechanisms, and devices for boring cannon and drawing wire. "As the first comprehensive account of the fire-using arts to be printed, the Pirotechnia is a prime source on many practical aspects of inorganic chemistry. Biringuccio emphasizes the adaptation of minerals and metals to use - their alloying, working, and especially the art of casting, of which he writes in great detail. In this area he is far better than the two other sixteenth-century authors with whom he is inevitably compared, Georgius Agricola and Lazarus Ercker. Although Agricola excels on mining and smelting, his famed sections on glass, steel, and the purification of salts by crystallization are in fact taken nearly verbatim from the Pirotechnia. "Biringuccio's approach is in strong conflict with that of the alchemists, whose work he evaluates in eleven pages of almost modern criticism, distinguishing their practical achievements from their theoretical motivations. His interest in theoretical questions is limited to the repetition of an essentially Aristotelian view of the origins of metallic ores and the nature of metals, with a rather forced extension to account for the observed increase in weight of lead when it is turned to litharge [lead monoxide]. "Biringuccio has been called one of the principal exponents of the experimental method, for he states that 'It is necessary to find the true method by doing it again and again, continually varying the procedure and then stopping at the best' and 'I have no knowledge other than what I have seen with my own eyes.' He gives quantitative information wherever appropriate. He was certain that the failure of an operation was due to ignorance or carelessness, not to either ill luck or occult influences: Fortune could be made to favor the foundryman by paying careful attention to details. Biringuccio's method, however, is not that of the scientist, for none of his operations is planned to test theory or even reflects the conscious application of it. He represents the strain of practical chemistry that had to develop and to be merged with philosophy before it could become science. Yet the enjoyment of the diverse properties of matter and the careful recording of a large number of substances and types of reactions that had been established by various craftsmen were just as necessary as the works of the philosophers, and in some sense were nearer the truth" (DSB). "First and foremost [Biringuccio] stands out as the practical man, concerned with carrying out operations on metals for profit and for use. He realizes the advantages of large-scale operation and advises the use of power-driven machinery in place of hand labor whenever possible. The availability of adequate water-power is the.

FIRST EDITION. Title in red and black with large woodcut, full-page woodcut arms on recto of second leaf, numerous woodcut illustrations throughout text. First 4 numbered leaves (following preliminaries) are in facsimile on old paper. Full blindstamped calf in an antique style. Overall a fine copy. First edition of the earliest treatise on optics written by a European. An extremely rare work, the text of which is derived from the optics of Abu al-Hasan (Alhazen). It contains not only a summary of all that was known on optics to the ancients and to Alhazen, but also some original investigations. Divided into nine books, Witelo first sets forth a number of geometrical theorems providing the mathematical principles required for the optical demonstrations of the remaining books. He details the essential features of optical systems, including the theory of theory of the nature of light and the propagation of light or visible forms. In addition to the nature of radiation, light and color in straight or refracted lines, and the treatment of images in various mirrors, a portion of the book deals with the physiology of vision. Very little is known of Witelo (ca. 1230-ca. 1275) other than he was born in Poland. This book, important as a source of Greco-Arabian theories on optics, had a great deal of influence on future investigators throughout all ages, including Regiomontanus and Da Vinci, Maurolico, Tycho Brahe, Galileo and Descartes. Indeed, Kepler based his entire study of optics upon it.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. No Jacket. Royal Folio. (40.2 x 28.1 cm.), A8 B6 C-E8 F6 G-H8 I-L6 M-Y8 Z6 &4 a-f8 g6 2a-2d8 2e6, lacking blanks at beginning and end. Roman letter in two sizes. First page of text (A2r) with a very large contemporary lavishly illuminated initial L (liquid gold and vivid green, blue and purple colours: a Venetian atelier?), spanning the width of 15 lines of text, without taking into account the extensive marginal foliation; at the foot of the same page, an illuminated heraldic shield, unidentified (noble Florentine family of Acciaiuoli? a rampant lion, slightly erased, within a shield at the centre of a laurel wreath on a shell-like blue background with two intertwined cornucopias containing fruits and plant leaves). C1r also carries an illuminated initial from the same time. Some light foxing, spotting and staining, particularly to margins, light scattering of wormholes towards beginning, mended snag to bottom margin of last leaf of text, owner s inscription almost completely removed from sig. a4r and very faded old stamp on recto of rear endpaper. A very good, clean and wide-margined copy, many pages of remarkable freshness, in early vellum (soiled, ties removed, top joint mended). Early shelf mark in ink on verso of initial blank. Contemporary or early marginalia in two hands, especially on the first page of the text. A perfect copy of the third Parma edition of Pliny s Natural History. In his work on natural science, Pliny discusses geography, ethnography, anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, sculpture and painting. As a purveyor of information both scientific and non-scientific, Pliny holds a place of exceptional importance in the tradition and diffusion of culture (DSB). This book was illuminated for an aristocratic owner and includes early annotations by two different hands. The first belonged to a scientist commentinf on natural phenomena; the second hand drew notes of a philological or historical nature. Chapter 10 of Book 28 dealing with the obtainment of medicines from animals, shows the interest in this topic by one of the owners, who left plenty of annotations about this subject. At bb8r (Book 35) is a reference to the humanist Lorenzo Valla (1405 1457), concerning Pliny s arguments regarding the deceptive power of painting in relation to birds. The editor of this incunable is Filippo Beroaldo the Elder, who was a teacher in humanities at the University of Bologna and an editor of classical texts. Beroardo normally edited works for the Bolognese publisher Ugo Ruggeri. BMC VII, 937; BSB-Ink P-604; Goff P 793; Hain 13094*; HC 13094; ISTC ip00793000; Oates 2573; Rush Hawkins 339.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 2nd Edition. SCARCE POLISH ASTROLOGY 4to. 16 unnumbered ll. Gothic letter. Woodcut coat of arms of Krakow (early hand-colouring) to title, woodcut zodiac diagram to A3r, celestial diagram to B1r, horoscope diagram to B2v, astrological tables, very slight browning, the odd very minor light water stain to outer blank margin. A very good, clean copy in red modern crushed morocco, decorated in blind, early ms numbers and underlining to B6r. Second recorded copy of the second edition (all extremely scarce) of this important astrological treatise printed in Krakow. Michael Falkener (c1450-1534) was an astronomer and astrologer from Wroclaw, who taught at the Krakow Academy. His classes in logic and astronomy were fundamental for the theories of his most famous student, Nicolaus Copernicus. In the 1490s, Falkener produced some of the earliest and best almanacs and prognostications in Poland. 'Introductorium begins with the characteristics of the Zodiac signs, specifying which body part or European city (especially Polish ones) each sign presides over. There follows a section on the nature, character and properties of the planets, with several astrological tables. Particularly interesting is the part in which Falkener deals with the aspects of the planets, as he uses references both to the fate of the subjects and their nature (behaviour). Also interesting are the attribution of the meanings of the transits of the Moon into different zodiac signs, rarely present in astrological tracts (Cantamessa). The second part provides theoretical sections on topics typically found in almanacs and prognostications: the calculation of the best days for phlebotomy and bloodletting (according to the patient s weight, overall health, etc.), the administration of medicaments, the planting of trees and crops, and meteorology (thunder, wind and rain). Attractively printed, important and very scarce. Only Harvard copy recorded in the US. Cantamessa 5078; Estreicher, Bib. Polska, p.168 (1506 ed.); Houzeau-Lancaster I/2, 13013. This ed. not in USTC (all others, except that of 1513, recorded as lost book ).

Folio (12 1/4 x 8 in.; 31.1 x 20.3 cm). Letterpress title within historiated woodcut border, woodcut portrait of the author on verso, 14 double-page atlas maps, including 2 world maps, 3 folding views of Vienna (signed "HRMD"), Worms (signed "ISD") and Heidelberg, approximately 1,000 woodcut text illustrations including 54 text maps, printer's woodcut device at the end. BINDING/CONDITION: Title-page slightly cropped at top, a few leaves browned, top margin of pp. 221-222 extended affecting headline and partially obscuring first line of text on p. 222, lower right corner of p. 335 remargined. Seventeenth-century brown morocco with overall diapered pattern of fleurs-de-lys, ecclesiastical arms of a cardinal on both covers, the spine in seven compartments similarly tooled, raised bands, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; some color restoration and repairs to edges of both covers and head of spine, joints at spine ends rubbed, small hole in seventh compartment. (64V1A) A HANDSOME COPY OF ONE OF THE MONUMENTAL ILLUSTRATED BOOKS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. First published in 1544, Münster's Cosmographia became the most popular work of its kind, teaching "nearly three generations of laymen most of what they know about the world beyond their native places" (Strauss). As a description of the whole world, Cosmographia provided an encyclopedia of general knowledge. The author's preface "promises the prospective reader an exhaustive survey of all that is significant and interesting in his world. 'The art of cosmography,' he begins, 'concerns itself not only with the countries, habitations, and lives of the various peoples of the earth, but also with many other things, such as strange animals, trees, metals, and so on, things both useful and useless, to be found on land and in the sea; [also] the habits, customs, laws, governments of men, .the origins of countries, regions, cities, and towns, how nature has endowed them and what human inventiveness has produced in them, [also] what notable things have happened everywhere.' " (Strauss). Its success was also due to the fascinating woodcuts (over 1,000) by Hans Holbein the Younger, Urs Graf, Hans Rudolph Manuel Deutsch and David Kandel. The present edition published in March of 1552 shortly before Münster's death in May of that year, is a reprint of the definitive 1550 edition. It contains the same 14 double-page maps and has the identical text maps (Karrow 58/135-188). The 1550 edition also introduced the town views, which were unusually accurate, as they were "based on first-hand information gathered from local officials of each town or place described, and were some of the earliest large-scale plans of cities to be published" (The World Encompassed, 272). As such, Cosmographia remains a key source of social history for that period. Additionally, the editions of 1550 and thereafter contain Münster's second world map, an oval projection cut by David Kandel, which replaced the Ptolemaic version that had appeared in earlier editions. There are separate sections on Africa, Asia, and "De novis insulis, quomodo, quando & per quem" between pages 1099 and 1113-a description of America including accounts of the voyages of Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan, etc. Map 14 of America, "Tabula nouarum insularum" is in Burden's state 5. "He was one of the first to create space in the woodblock for the insertion of place-names in metal type. The map's inclusion in Münster's Cosmographia.sealed the fate of 'America' as the name for the New World.North America is not shown as accurately as the southern half of the continent, it had to a large extent been neglected so far by explorers. When Giovanni di Verrazzano.passed by the Outer Banks of the Carolinas in 1524, he mistook Pamlico and Albemarle sounds for the 'Oriental Sea' that led to Cathay and the rich Spice Islands. Here Münster perpetuates the error and through the success of this book provided the impetus to the exploration of the region" (Burden). PROVENANC.

No Binding. Etat : VG. Waldseem ller / 1513 / Orbis Typus Universalis Iuxta Hydrographorum Traditionem (Alex 3, 81712) The Earliest Obtainable Waldseem ller Map of the World Nice example of Martin Waldseem ller's modern map of the world, the earliest obtainable world map published by noted sixteenth-century cosmographer Waldseem ller. It was included in the first published collection of modern maps and made up part of the influential 1513 Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy s Geographia. This map is one of the earliest obtainable world maps to depict the discoveries of the earliest modern explorers including Christopher Columbus, Vasco Da Gama, Amerigo Vespucci. It draws heavily from Portuguese sources in its expanded view of India, and presciently separates Asia from America, something that would not be clarified by mapmakers until the second half of the sixteenth century. Included in the Caribbean are isabella and spagnolla, Cuba and Haiti/Dominican Republic, where the Spanish were already setting up colonies. Interestingly, Waldseem ller chose not to use the name America on this world map, as he did on his famous 1507 world map, the earliest map to use the name. This shows the continuing consideration Waldseem ller gave to his work. The 1513 Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy According to Burden, Waldseem ller likely began work on this map in ca. 1505, when he was a professor of cosmography in St.-Di . Waldseem ller worked on the Ptolemy with Matthias Ringmann, who collated the texts, while Waldseem ller compiled the maps. However, when their patron Ren II died in 1508, the St.-Di Press closed down. Ringmann died in 1511. These events stalled the project and it was only in 1513 that the Ptolemy appeared, printed by Waldseem ller s friend Johann Schott. The Strasbourg edition is widely considered the most important edition of Ptolemy's Geographia. It includes 47 maps cut from woodblocks. This edition had not one but two world maps, this modern map and a map of the world as known to Ptolemy, which includes 8 windheads and other remarkable decorative embellishments. This map lacks those decorative elements and adopts a simple format in order to emphasize the rapid expansion of the known world. The modern maps were separated from the Ptolemaic map with their own separate title page, making them the first published collection of modern maps. They were issued in a second edition published in Strasbourg in 1520. Lorent Fries copied, simplified, and reduced the Waldseem ller maps for his 1522 Ptolemy published by Gr ninger; these Fries woodblocks were also used in three later editions: 1525 Strasbourg edited by Willibald Pirkheimer, 1535 Lyons edited by Michael Servetus, and 1541 Vienna (reprint of the Servetus). The innovative nature of this map and its influential maker make this an essential map for early world map collectors. Map.

Hardcover. Etat : Fine. [THOMAS WOTTON S COPY] 16mo. ff. [xvi], 555 [i.e. 547], [xi]. a , , a-z , A-2Z , 3A . Italic letter, chapter headings and side notes in Roman. Ruled in red throughout. Barbé s woodcut printer s device on title, white on black criblé initial, armorial bookplate of Boies Penrose II on pastedown, Robert S Pirie s on fly with his pencil note above This book was left to me in his will by John Fleming 1987 . Very light age yellowing. A fine copy, in simple but very elegant contemporary French calf bound for the library of Thomas Wotton, covers bordered with a single gilt rule, Thomae Wottoni et Micorum gilt lettered on upper cover, Thomae Wottoni et Amicorum on lower, both within gilt line border using double capital V s to create the W of Wotton, 1550 gilt below, double gilt ruled central lozenge, with four repeated gilt hatched fleurons at centre, spine with blind ruled raised bands, small fleurons gilt at centres, shelf mark J8 in white paint in top compartment, all edges gilt, small crack to upper joint and headband, corners slightly worn, raised bands with small holes to lower side. Preserved in a black morocco folding box gilt. Beautifully printed edition of Claude de Seyssel s translation into French of Thucydides famous History, beautifully preserved in a simple but very elegant binding made for the library of the most celebrated English collector of the C16th, the English Grolier , Thomas Wotton of Boughton Malherbe, Kent. Thomas Wotton, the English Grolier was the first Englishman to collect a planned library of gold-tooled bookbindings. About 140 volumes have survived from his library. A large group of these bears the Grolier-like tooled inscription Thomae Wottoni et Amicorum , some have stamped armorials, some .have the simple tooled date 1552, and some have no special signs of ownership on their covers but can be traced back to him by provenance. Wotton belonged to a prosperous Kentish family is not known to have attended either of the English universities, but his library suggests an educated man with good knowledge of Latin the language of scholarship; he did not own any Greek texts. Needham. According to Nixon, this binding is part of group IV. Simple bindings before 1553, type D . Binding [with] ownership inscription in the form THOMAE WOTTONI ET AMICORUM and the date 1550. In place of the medallions, this has a lozenge containing four impressions of a tool . Thucydides has been described as the father of scientific history because of his strict standards of evidence gathering and analysis of events in terms of cause and effect. He has also been called the father of the school of political realism viewing relations between states as based more on might than right. His text is still studied in military colleges throughout the world. Thucydides also makes the interesting, if somewhat cynical, analysis of human nature in explaining human behaviour in the context of wars, plagues and all sorts of disasters. Viewed in the highest regard by subsequent Greek historians, then ignored throughout the Middle Ages, Thucydides had some influence on Machiavelli, but much more on Hobbes who translated him, and was idolised by Schiller, Schlegel, Nietzsche, Macauley and von Ranke. Woodrow Wilson read him on the way to the Versailles conference, and Thucydides influence was increasingly felt in international relations during the period of the cold war. The Peleponnesian War of which Thucydides wrote was an epic 27 year struggle for supremacy between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies. It probably continued after Thucycides death. Thucydides is the political historian par excellence, a meticulous recorder of public events, in which he had fought and from which he was never far removed. He assiduously researched written documents and personally interviewed eye-witnesses whose testimonies he wrote up into somewhat stylistic speeches. Seyssel, (c.1450-1520) was a Savoyard scholar, diplomat.

Hardcover. Etat : Good. Folio (330 x 225 mm), contemporary Bolognese binding of brown calf richly tooled in blind over pasteboards. Covers with two borders one with intersecting foliated circles, four corner pieces. IN THE CENTRE OF BOTH COVERS IS THE PECKING CROW TOOL, A RIGHT HAND CLASPING A FLOWERING STALK TOPPED BY A CROW. THIS IS ONE OF THE DEVICES OR SUPRALIBROS, MOSTLY USED BY THE FAMOUS GERMAN COLLECTOR MARCUS FUGGER (1529-1597). Spine in six compartments richly decorated in blind, gauffered edges (extremities somewhat worn, a couple of corners bumped, the lower edge of rear cover erased, small tear to upper joint). Some browning in places, slight spotting, slight marginal waterstaining to last leaves, marginal restoration in the white margin of last leaf, but altogether a very genuine, good copy. Printed title-page showing a world map, portrait of Sebastian Münster on verso, [24], 1237 pages; 14 double-pages woodcut maps, 3 folding plates and 38 double-page woodcuts maps, and upwards of 900 illustrations in the text including maps, plans, town views, portraits and natural history subjects; woodcut printer's device on verso of last leaf.First edition in Italian, very rare. Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia was an immensely influential book that attempted to describe the entire world across all of human history and analyse its constituent elements of geography, history, ethnography, zoology and botany. First published in 1544, it went through thirty-five editions and was published in five languages, making it one of the most important books of the Reformation period. Münster acquired the material for his book in three ways. He used all available literary sources. He tried to obtain original manuscript material for description of the countryside and of villages and towns. Finally, he obtained further material on his travels (primarily in south-west Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace). Cosmographia not only contained the latest maps and views of many well-known cities, but also included an encyclopedic amount of detail about the known and unknown world, and was undoubtedly one of the most widely read books of its time. Münster's aim was to write in a way that combined the two traditions of cosmographical description: the descriptive, historical, and anthropocentric approach with that of empirical investigations, expressed through mathematics and geography. The book contains two world maps: the new Figura del mondo universale and the Discrizione generale del mondo secondo Tolomeo and twelve double page maps: Europa, Spagna, Gallia Germania, Helvezia, Svevia & Bavaria, Bohemia, Polonia & Ungheria, Grecia, India, Africa, Mondo Nuovo. Our copy of this rare book probably belonged to one of the great libraries of the sixteenth century, collected by Marcus Fugger (1529--1597), son of Anton, chief banker to the Emperor Charles V. He combined his business and civic duties with scholarly pursuits, central to which was the formation of an extensive library. Although there is no documentary evidence of his visit to Paris, he acquired and had bound there a number of books in the early 1550s. Characteristic of these bindings is the use of one of two tools at the centre: a crowned double-headed eagle or a hand-branch-bird tool, the pecking crow. The eagle usually appears on small-format books while the pecking crow on large-format books. Marcus Fugger probably acquired our copy of Munster's Cosmografia, already bound, in Italy and then he sent the book to his binder in Paris where his supralibros, the pecking crow, was stamped at the center of covers. VD 16; M 6712; Sabin 51402.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. 1st Edition. FIRST EXAMINATION OF ELECTRICITY IN PRINT FIRST EDITION. Small folio. pp. [16], 240 + 1 folding plate. Roman letter, little Italic. Printer s device to title, Gilbert s woodcut arms to verso, 90 full-page or smaller woodcut diagrams of magnets and experiments on magnetism, decorated initials and ornaments. Title and last verso dusty, small tear from upper blank margin of title, light age yellowing. An excellent, crisp, clean copy in contemporary English vellum, yapp edges, remains of one tie, early ms title to spine, a little soiled, traces of chewing to lower cover, ms 36/6 d T.C. 1713 Oxford to front pastedown. Preserved in folding box. A crisp copy, in contemporary English binding, of the first edition of this ground-breaking, illustrated work on magnetism and electricity, by William Gilbert, the Galileo of Magnetism . The first major English scientific treatise based on experimental methods of research. It is with Gilbert that the modern development of electricity and magnetism really starts (PMM). Gilbert (1544-1603) was physician to Elizabeth I and James I, and a natural philosopher. His masterpiece, De magnete was based on experiments he carried out using a model of the earth called terrella , often portrayed in the woodcut diagrams. His use of electricus in the sense of like amber , here referring to its attractive properties, inspired Sir Thomas Browne to coin the term electricity in 1646. The 6 parts are devoted to lodestones (naturally-magnetized minerals, like Gilbert s own terrella ), magnetic movements, direction, variation, declination and the revolution of the Earth intended as a gigantic magnet. The second chapter of Book II is the earliest ever published on electricity (Mottelay, p.83); here Gilbert discusses his experiments on attraction using a rotating needle electroscope, and concludes by theorizing a differentiation between magnetic and electric bodies. The remainder of Book II deals, amongst others, with magnetic axis and poles, the spherical extension of magnetic force, and how it can be determined by mass or quantity. Book III discusses verticity or the force visible when magnetized iron turns the opposite way, as well as the magnetization of stones, with a large woodcut showing a scientist or ironmonger creating a magnet in his workshop. Book IV examines variations of magnetism in different places due to the Earth s rotation, as well as the construction of a mariner s compass, also portrayed; Book V is a study of the magnetic needle; and Book VI employs the Copernican theory to explain the magnetic nature of the Earth. The work contains a prodigious number and variety of experiments and observations [ ]. It would, indeed, be a miracle if all of Gilbert s general inferences were just, or all his experiments accurate. It was untrodden ground. But, on the whole, this performance contains more real information than any writing of the age in which he lived, and is scarcely exceeded by any that has appeared since (Mottelay, p.89). A very fine copy of this most important scientific work. Gilbert s book influenced Kepler (112), Bacon (119), Boyle (141), Newton (161) and in particular Galileo (128), who used his theories to suggest his own proof of the findings of Copernicus in cosmology (PMM). ESTC S121112; STC (2nd ed.), 11883; PMM 107; Luborsky & Ingram 11883; Mottelay, Electricity, p.82; Lowndes III 890; Horblitt 100 Famous Books in Science 41; Norman 905; SNL298.

Engraving, printed on two sheets of laid paper joined. Engraver's monogram at the lower left. Early manuscript caption in English in the lower margin. Plate mark: 11 x 16 inches. Sheet size: 14 5/8 x 18 3/8 inches. (Tear extending from the right margin closed with small void in excellent facsimile, small worm hole within the image). Very rare German news-sheet map depicting the Turkish fleet invasion of Cyprus in 1570. Exceptionally scarce engraved German broadside map depicting the Ottoman fleet sailing to Venetian-controlled Cyprus in 1570. The early English manuscript caption in ink just below image reads: "The representation of the Turkish Navall Army in ye year 1570 going forth to meet the Venetian fleet." Cyprus, then under Venetian rule, was a strategic point for controlling shipping and trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottomans, ruled by Sultan Selim II, had long desired the island. Following a series of warnings and demands, the Ottoman fleet, commanded by Müezzinzade Ali Pasha and Lala Mustafa Pasha sailed for Cyprus in late June 1570. Depicted here, the Turkish fleet was composed of an estimated 350-400 ships and upwards of 100,000 men. Following sieges and massacres at Nicosia, Kyrenia and Famagusta, the island was taken by August 1571. Although the invasion was long-heralded, the Venetian fleet failed to prevent the invasion or the subsequent fall of Cyprus to the Turks. However, they subsequently raised the support of the "Holy League" of the Catholic maritime states in the Mediterranean, and defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571 off the western coast of Greece. The victory of the Holy League prevented the Ottoman Empire expanding further along the European side of the Mediterranean, though did not end their possession of Cyprus. Jenichen, who signed the map with his monogram 'BI', was the leading German publisher of news-sheet maps. Jenichen and compatriot Matthias Zündt took particular interest in the conflict and produced views and maps of it that equaled and surpassed those of their Italian counterparts. Given their ephemeral nature, all are rare and desirable. We can locate only one other example of this engraving appearing at auction in recent times (Sotheby's London, 29 April 2014, lot 157, £60,000). Hollstein XL B, 128; G.K. Nagler, Die Monogrammisten v. 1, p. 818-819; Andresen II, Nr. 276; Drugulin II, 364; s.a. Meurer, Jenichen S. 50.

Folio (420 x 280 mm). (4), 101, (1) ff. Later calf with gold- and blind-tooling. First edition of a work on poisons, compiled by Sante Arduino (or Ardoini) of Pesaro. "[T]he elaborate compendium on poisons in eight books which Sante Ardoini of Pesaro compiled in the years, 1424-1426, from Greek, Arabic and Latin works on medicine and nature, and which was printed at Venice in 1492, and at Basel in 1518 and 1562 [.] Although Ardoini quotes previous authors at great length, his work is no mere compilation, since he does not hesitate to disagree with such medical authorities of Peter of Abano and Gentile da Foligno, and refers to his own medical experience or observation of nature at Venice and to what fisherman or collectors of herbs have told him. He also seems to have known Arabic, and his occasional practice of giving the names of herbs in several Italian dialects is of some linguistic value" (Thorndike). Arduino makes extensive use of the works by Avicenna (Ibn Sina), who "held a high place in Western European medical studies, ranking together with Hippocrates and Galen as an acknowledged authority" (Weisser). Among the numerous other sources he used are Galen, Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr), Rasis (al-Razi), Andromachus, Albucasis (Al-Zahrawi), Serapion the Younger and Dioscorides. - A very good copy, with only a few marginal waterstains. Binding slightly rubbed along the extremities and with a few scratches on boards. - Hain-Copinger 1554. Goff A-950. Ohly-Sack 233. Walsh 2186. Proctor 4963. BMC V, 403. GW 2318. Thorndike III, 545. ISTC ia00950000.