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

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

[HYMNAL.]

Neu-vermehrt- und vollständiges Gesang-Buch, worinnen sowohl die Psalmen Davids, nach D. Ambrosii Lobwassers, Uebersetzung...

[Likely Swabia, for] Philadelphia, Ernst Ludwig Baisch, 1774.

First and only edition thus of this German hymnal, issued in Philadelphia by Ernst Ludwig Baisch under his own imprint but printed in Germany, bound by an itinerant German Pennsylvanian binder with printed waste from Charles Cist’s Americanische Stadt und Land Calender for 1797, with inscriptions...

£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

[MINIATURE BOOKS.]

‘Hebdomadaire, ou bibliotheque secrete’.

France, c. 1800.

A charming miniature diary in seven volumes, hidden within a compartment of a book-form box.

£2750

[ALMANACK.]

London Almanack for the Year of Christ 1820.

[London,] Printed for the Company of Stationers, [1820].

An extraordinary binding of silver filigree over blue silk on a miniature London Almanack for 1820.

£2750

[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

RUSCELLI, Girolamo.

Le imprese illustri con espositioni, et discorsi …

[(Colophon:) Venice, Comin da Trino di Monferrato, 1572.]

Second edition of one of the finest emblem books of the sixteenth century, illustrated with over one hundred engravings depicting the imprese of notable figures in Italy and beyond, our copy bound for Giacomo Boncompagni, illegitimate son of Pope Gregory XIII.

£2750

[ALMANACK.]

Étrennes mignonnes, curieuses et utiles, pour l’année mil sept cent quatre-vingt-dix.

Paris, Guillot, 1790.

A French almanack for 1790 in a delightful sous mica binding with painted vignettes showing a courting couple one side and what appears to be a lovers’ tryst on the other, preserved in its original red morocco case.

£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

[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

[PSALMS.]

Les Pseaumes de David, mis en Vers François, revus et approuvez par le Synode Walon des Provinces-Unies. Nouvelle Edition.

Amsterdam, ‘aux dépens de l’Eglise Françoise de Londres’, 1729’.

New edition of the metrical Psalms of the Pléiade poet Clément Marot and the theologian Théodore de Bèze, extensively revised, with a new version of 149 Psalms, printed for the use of Huguenot émigrés.

£950