[OXFORD UNIVERSITY.]

Pietas Universitatis Oxoniensis in obitum serenissimi Regis Georgii II. et gratulatio in augustissimi Regis...

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1761.

First edition, one of fifty copies on large paper, an exceptional survival in the most luxurious (and fragile) of presentation bindings: full purple velvet with gold-fringed purple silk ties, typically reserved for a handful or fewer of royal copies.

£10000

HURTADO, Eugenio, scribe.

[Missal for feast days.]

Madrid, 1827.

An extraordinary and enormous liturgical manuscript with painted and stencilled decorations, in a remarkable binding on wheels for ease of movement

£9500

THEOCRITUS et al.

Theocriti aliorumque poetarum Idyllia. Eiusdem Epigrammata …

[Geneva], Henri Estienne, 1579.

An outstanding volume uniting the Estienne Greek bucolic poets (Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus) and the Estienne Greek Psalms in an Henri Estienne presentation binding.

£9000

MÄNDL, Kaspar.

Christliche Sitten-Lehr und heylsame Anmuthungen gezogen auß Betrachtung deß bitteren Leyden und Sterbens unsers...

Augsburg, Matthias Wolff, 1737.

A superb example of Rococo decorative binding, exploiting all available materials – silks, metals, beads, papers, gilding, and leather – to extraordinary (if perhaps excessive) effect.

£6750

MERULA, Giorgio.

Enarrationes Satyrarum Juvenalis.

Treviso, Bartholomaeus Confalonerius, [not before May] 1478.

The first book printed by Bartolomeo Confalonieri da Salò in Treviso, Michael Wodhull’s copy, bound and ruled for him by the London binder Maria Wier.

£6500

MEFFRET, Johann.

Sermones Meffreth alias Ortulus regine de tempore. Pars hyemalis.

[Basel, Nicolaus Kesler, not after 1485.]

A volume of sermons with early English annotations, in a binding featuring tools attributed to an early Cambridge workshop known as the Unicorn Binder.

£6500

BIBLE.

Biblia cum concordantiis veteris et novi testamenti et sacrorum canonum: necnon & additionibus in marginibus varietatis...

[(Colophon:) Lyons, Jean Marion, for Anton II Koberger in Nuremberg, 19 August 1520.]

A handsomely printed Bible in a contemporary Silesian or Bohemian binding, richly annotated by a Protestant scholar and with numerous woodcuts in contemporary colouring.

£5500

[BIBLE.]

The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments … diligently compared and revised …

Oxford, T. Wright and W. Gill, 1769.

First quarto edition of the Oxford ‘standard’ Bible, as revised by Benjamin Blayney of Hertford College, Oxford (1728–1801), later Regius Professor of Hebrew. The quarto and folio editions of 1769, of which this was the first to be finished, were printed from the same setting of type differently...

£5250

[PRIMER.]

Preces privatae, in studiosorum gratia[m] collectae & Regia authoritate approbatae …

London, William Seres, 1568.

Second edition of this rare ‘private’ prayer book, first printed in 1564, with a calendar, a Latin catechism for children, selected psalms, and a Latin–English list of English islands, counties, cathedral cities, bishoprics, rivers, and ports.

£4250

LIVY; [Pedro DE LA VEGA, translator].

Todas las decadas de Tito Livio paduano, que hasta al presente se hallaron y fueron...

[(Colophon:) Cologne [i.e. Antwerp?], Arnold Birckmann], 1553.

A handsome copy of Livy’s History in Spanish, containing the surviving books as well as Florus’s Epitome, in a contemporary Augsburg binding produced by a bindery in the service of the Fugger family.

£3500

[WALLPAPER BINDING.]

‘Chassereau des Biens et Rentes deves a joseph Paul Roegier et marie margu te [sic] Bourdeau son espouse,...

Hainaut, 1750–1773.

A manuscript account book compiled by Joseph Paul Roegier and his son, recording receipts over a quarter-century, in an attractive and unusual binding reusing a large fragment of gilt leather wallpaper.

£3500

[ALMANACK.]

L’Esprit des chansonniers, extrain [sic?] des meilleurs poëtes.

Paris, Le Fuel, [1826?].

A very rare enamelled metal binding with an enchanting design of birds and squirrels, from the collection of the bookbinder, collector, and bibliographer Léon Gruel.

£2750

STRABO.

Strabonis geographicorum lib. XVII ... iam denuo a Conrado Heresbachio … ad fidem Graeci exemplaris, authorumque …...

Basel, Johann Walder, 1539.

Second edition of Strabo’s masterful Geographica in the Latin translation of the German Humanist and friend of Erasmus, Konrad Heresbach (1496–1576), here found with the first Latin translation of an epitome of Strabo’s work by the Basel professor of physic and logic, Hieronymus Gemusaeus...

£2500

PORTA, Giambattista della.

De humana physiognomonia … libri IIII; qui ab extimis, quae in hominum corporibus conspiciuntur signis,...

Hanau, Wilhelm Antonius for [Frankfurt,] Peter Fischer, 1593.

The second Latin edition and the first to be published in Germany of this richly illustrated work on physiognomy by the Italian polymath Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615), a beautiful copy in strictly contemporary German white calf.

£2500

[ALMANACK.]

Les etrennes a la rose, ou le rosier d’amour.

Paris, Janet, [1804?].

A charming literary almanack, or ‘rosebush of love’, collecting amatory poems using the motif of the rose, here bound in red silk strikingly embroidered in silver and dated with the French Revolutionary year ‘An XII’ (1804).

£2500

LUCAN.

Pharsalia cum annotationibus in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.

Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1528.

An uncommon edition of Lucan’s poem on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, with extensive Breton provenance and contemporary annotations, in a contemporary binding.

£2500

[ALMANACK.]

Calendarium Tyrnaviense ad annum Jesu Chris[ti] M. DCC. XXXI[.] …

[Tyrnau (Trnava), 1731.]

A remarkable almanack binding of part-printed, part-manuscript vellum, prepared for presentation at the Habsburg court in Vienna to the Genoese diplomat Clemente Doria.

£1850

ZACHARIÄ, Just Friedrich Wilhelm.

Les quatre parties du jour, poëme traduit de l’allemand de M. Zacharie.

Paris, J. B. G. Musier fils, 1769.

First edition in French of this proto-Romantic poem on the times of day, splendidly bound with the arms of its dedicatee, the mentally ill Christian VII of Denmark and Norway.

£1500

PLINY the Elder.

Historiae mundi libri XXXVII, cum castigationibus et adnotationibus doctiss. & variis praeterea lectionibus ex...

Frankfurt, Claude de Marne and heirs of Jean Aubry, 1608.

First Frankfurt edition of Pliny’s Natural History, here bound as an enormous single volume with strikingly decorated edges featuring acorns and scrolls.

£1400

[BASKERVILLE PRESS.]

The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church,...

Third and final edition of Baskerville’s octavo prayer book. The prayers for the Royal Family on cancels B8, C6, and D3 include the name of Queen Charlotte, whom George III married in 1761. This copy also includes the ‘occasional prayers’ which were only printed for part of the edition and are...

£1200