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The First Complete Plato
PLATO; Jean DE SERRES, translator and commentator; Henri ESTIENNE, editor.
Απαντα τα σωζομενα … Opera quae extant omnia …
A magnificent large-paper copy of the first complete edition of Plato’s corpus, edited by Henri Estienne and accompanied by a new parallel translation by Jean de Serres.
Editio Princeps
It’s All Greek to Me
GAZA, Theodorus.
Grammatica introductiva; De mensibus; Apollonius Dyscolus: De constructione; Herodianus: De numeris.
A beautiful example of early Greek printing, containing the editio princeps of the grammar of Theodorus Gaza, and one of the first texts to be printed entirely in Greek.
Marriage, the Moon, a Manual for Confessors, and More
[INCUNABLE SAMMELBAND.]
Sammelband of ten works.
A sammelband of ten Roman incunables, nine of which printed by Stephan Plannck, covering subjects from astronomy to usury, holy water to marriage, and ending with St Antoninus’s manual for confessors; with annotations showing the early ownership of a scholar/practitioner of canon law or a confessor, and partially preserving its original binding.
The Syston Park Copy
HERP, Hendrik.
Speculum aureum decem praeceptorum Dei.
First edition of this collection of sermons based on the Ten Commandments, devised for both confessors and preachers, printed by Peter Schoeffer, Gutenberg’s assistant and, after Gutenberg himself, ‘the most influential individual in the early history of the printed word’ (White, p. xi).
‘The Greatest of the Medieval Encyclopaedic Dictionaries’
BALBUS, Johannes.
Catholicon.
Third edition of the earliest printed lexicon, a monumental piece of printing from one of the earliest presses in Strasbourg, containing the thirteenth-century Latin dictionary and grammar of Johannes Balbus, the ‘greatest of the medieval encyclopaedic dictionaries’ (Chamberlin, p. 136).
Local Government, Murder, and Football
[JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.]
The Boke of Justices of Peas the Charge with all the Processe of the Cessions, Warrantes Supercedias & all that longeth to ony Justyce to make Endytementes of haute Treason petyt Treason Felonyes Appeles Trespas upon Statutes, Trespas contra Regis Pacem Nocumentis with dyvers Thynges more as it appereth in the Kalender of the same Boke.
First edition(?), very rare, of the first printed guide for Justices of the Peace, issued with a short guide to land law.
An Excellent Copy in Contemporary Dutch Vellum
[MONTESQUIEU, Charles Louis de Secondat.]
De l’esprit des loix, ou du rapport que les loix doivent avoir avec la constitution de chaque gouvernement, les moeurs, le climat, la religion, le commerce, &c. à quoi l’auteur a ajouté des recherches nouvelles sur les loix romaines touchant les successions, sur les loix françoises, & sur les loix féodales.
First edition, first issue of Montesquieu’s masterpiece of political theory asserting the principle of the separation of a government’s powers as a means to prevent tyranny: a principle which formed the ideological basis of the French and American revolutions and became the cornerstone of the United States Constitution.
The ‘Bible’ of the Physiocrats
[QUESNAY, François.] DU PONT DE NEMOURS, Pierre Samuel, editor.
Physiocratie, ou constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus avantageux au genre humain …
First edition of the ‘Bible’ of the Physiocrats and one of the most important and original works on political economy to be published before the Wealth of Nations.
Missionary Martyrs in Japan
SICARDO, José.
Christiandad del Japon, y dilatada persecucion que padecio. Memorias sacras, de los martyres de las ilustres religiones de Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Compañia de Jesus, y crecido numero de seglares, y con especialidad, de los religiosos del orden de N.P.S. Augustin …
Rare first edition of this important and comprehensive account of Christian missions to Japan by the Spanish Augustinian José Sicardo (1643–1715).
'The Bible of European Sinophilia'
DU HALDE, Jean-Baptiste.
A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, together with the Kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet, containing the Geography and History (natural as well as civil) of those Countries, enrich’d with general and particular Maps, and adorned with a great number of Cuts, from the French of P. J. B. Du Halde, Jesuit: with Notes geographical, historical, and critical; and other Improvements, particularly in the Maps, by the Translator …
The first complete English translation of Jean-Baptiste Du Halde’s Description géographique … de l’Empire de la Chine (1735), the ‘Bible of European sinophilia’ (Löwendahl). Based on the reports of major Jesuit missionaries, and shaped by the earlier Historia of Martini and Mémoires of Le Comte, Du Halde’s Description ‘was more elaborate and authentic than any other account of the empire that had appeared previously … it was an encyclopaedia of information, a rich quarry for writers who happened to be interested in Chinese affairs in the mid-18th century’ (Löwendahl); or, in the words of Hill, the ‘first definitive European work on the Chinese Empire’.
A Playwright’s Jonson
JONSON, Benjamin.
The Workes …
An excellent set of the canonical Ben Jonson, the first collection of English plays in the proud format of a folio and the direct fore-runner of Shakespeare’s folios, here found with both the first (1616) and the corrected second editions (1640) of Volume I, and the first edition of Volume II[-III] (1631–40).
Love Letters From Artist to Astrologer
APPIA, Béatrice.
A fine collection of manuscript and typescript correspondence and humorous drawings, sent to her lover Jean Carteret, many signed ‘Biche’.
An extraordinary series of love letters, by turns passionate, mocking, and lyrical, with copious illustration, sent by the Swiss-born French artist Béatrice Appia (1899–1998), best known for her illustrated children’s books, to the philosopher and astrologer Jean Carteret (1906–1980), here addressed as ‘cher Jean’ or ‘doux Jean’.
Masterpieces of High Renaissance Lombard Illumination
MASTER B.F.
Three very large historiated initials cut from a set of choirbooks.
Three extremely fine initials by the enigmatic artist known as Master B.F., one of the most inventive and accomplished illuminators of the Italian High Renaissance. They come almost certainly from a magnificent set of about twenty choirbooks belonging to the Olivetan monastery of Santi Angelo e Niccolò of Villanove Sillaro in the diocese of Lodi, near Milan, which was suppressed in 1799.
The First Written Account of the Capuchin Mission to Maranhao, Brazil
ABBEVILLE, Claude d’.
Histoire de la mission des peres Capucins en l’isle de Maragnan et terres circonvoisines ou est traicte des singularitez admirables & des meurs merveilleuses des Indiens habitans de ce pais avec les missives et advis qui ont este envoyez de nouveau …
Second edition, enlarged and revised from the first edition published earlier the same year, a handsome copy, of the first written account of the Capuchin mission to Maranhão, an island on the coast of Brazil, of which, Sabin notes, this is the earliest mention. In 1612 the mission, composed of the French Capuchins Yves d’Evreux, Arsène de Paris, Ambroise d’Amiens, and Claude d’Abbeville, accompanied Daniel de la Rivardière’s expedition to settle Maranhão. Relations between the French and the local Tupi people were good and the Capuchin mission initially successful. Arsène and d’Abbeville soon returned to France accompanying six important Tupi, portraits of whom, in European dress, can be found in this account. The Tupi ambassadors caused a sensation in Paris, where curious crowds flocked to see them and ‘the Histoire de la mission seems to have been printed very quickly in order to take advantage of the presence in Paris of the six Tupi from Maranhão … It appears that the first edition was soon out of print, and a second was printed. This was published with the misprints corrected, and a more extensive index was compiled and printed in 35 pp. in double cols’ (Borba de Moraes, trans.).
Beautiful Botanical Watercolours
[LOO, Pieter van, attributed.]
156 watercolours of flowers, plants, and fruits.
A truly stunning collection of over 150 original eighteenth-century botanical watercolours, attributed to the noted Dutch botanical artist Pieter van Loo (1731–1784).
![Flora Pedemontana sive enumeratio methodica stirpium indigenarum Pedemontii [– Florae Pedemontanae icones accedit explanatio nomenclaturae botanicae] … Tomus primus [– tertius].](https://prd.assets.books.quaritch.com/images/G2399_08.JPG)
Annotated by the Author’s Pupil
ALLIONI, Carlo.
Flora Pedemontana sive enumeratio methodica stirpium indigenarum Pedemontii [– Florae Pedemontanae icones accedit explanatio nomenclaturae botanicae] … Tomus primus [– tertius].
First edition of the earliest Italian regional flora by the ‘Linnaeus of Piedmont’, here in the extremely rare hand-coloured state and extensively annotated by Giovanni Battista Balbis, the author’s pupil and successor at the Botanical Garden of the University of Turin.
From the First Venetian Press
LACTANTIUS.
Opera.
Magnificent incunable edition of the works of Lactantius, a fine product of the first Venetian press, established in 1469 by Johannes de Spira and continued by his brother Vindelinus from 1470 until 1473. This was the fifth impression of the works of Lactantius, the hugely successful North African early Christian writer.
Printed on Vellum
[CANONS REGULAR OF THE LATERAN.]
Regula et constitutiones Canonicorum Regularium congregationis S. Salvatoris, Ordinis Sancti Augustini. Denuo reformatae, auctae, summis illustratae, indiceq. locupletissimo exornatae.
The most complete edition, rare, of the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of the Canons Regular of St Augustine of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour, printed on vellum, with two seemingly unrecorded cancels, from the library of a former Abbot General of the Order.
The First Significant European Study of China
Translated at Hakluyt's Request
GONZÁLES DE MENDOZA, Juan, and Robert PARKE, translator.
The Historie of the great and mightie Kingdome of China, and the Situation thereof: togither with the great Riches, huge Citties, politike Governement, and rare Inventions in the same. Translated out of Spanish by R. Parke.
First edition in English, rare, of the first significant European study of China, ‘one of the outstanding “best-sellers” of the sixteenth century’ (Boxer).
The Last Judgement
[GRADUAL.]
Vast historiated initial ‘A’ cut from a Gradual.
A spectacular initial on the scale of a small panel painting. The verso includes the text ‘[neque] irrideant me inimici mei […] [un]iversi qui te expectant’ and the versicle ‘Vias tuas domine de[monstras]’, indicating that the initial would have introduced the introit ‘Ad te levavi animam meam’ (‘Unto thee I lift up my soul’) for the first Sunday in Advent (and thus the very first text of the liturgical year). As for the corresponding text for that day in the Antiphonal (‘Aspiciens a longe …’, ‘Seeing from afar, behold the power of God coming …’) the initial ‘A’ was often given lavish treatment by the illuminators of Italian choirbooks, and in both cases the iconography sometimes combined Christ in glory after the Ascension with the Last Judgment, as here. While the dead rising from their graves are sometimes depicted, our initial is unusual for its inclusion of tormented souls in Hell. The style may be compared to the oeuvres of the First Master of the Gubbio Choir Books and the Master of the Deruta-Salerno Missals. The decorated initials on the verso are characteristic of Umbrian illumination in the last quarter of the thirteenth century.
‘The Highest Expression of Early Bookkeeping’
FLORI, Lodovico.
Trattato del modo di tenere il libro doppio domestico col suo esemplare … Per uso delle case, e collegii della medesima Compagnia nel Regno di Sicilia.
Rare sole reissue of the even rarer first edition (Palermo, 1636) of ‘the highest expression of early bookkeeping. One has to reach the nineteenth century to find another author of Flori’s calibre’ (Peragallo).
Unphilosophical Philosophers
DIOGENES LAERTIUS; Henri ESTIENNE, editor.
Περι βιων, δογματων και αποφθεγματων εν φιλοσοφια ευδοκιμησαντων, βιβλια ι … De vitis, dogmatis & apophthegmatis eorum qui in philosophia claruerunt, libri X … Pythag. Philosophorum fragmenta. Cum Latina interpretatione.
First Estienne edition of The Lives of the Philosophers, the main surviving source of information on many Greek philosophers and their writings, including quotations from works now lost.