[BONIOHANNES de Messana, attributed.]

Speculum sapiencie beati Cirilli episcopi alias quadripartitus apologieticus vocatus....

[Basel, Michael Wenssler, c. 1475.]

An attractive early incunable edition of the wonderful collection of medieval fables known as the Speculum Sapientiae or Quadripartitus Apologeticus, attributed in manuscripts and early editions to ‘Cyrillus Episcopus’ but now ascribed to the fourteenth-century Italian Dominican Boniohannes...

£7250

[BIBLE – OLD TESTAMENT.]

Los cinco libros de la ley divina. De nuevo corregidos y bueltos à imprimir [– Aphtaroth de todo...

Amsterdam, ‘en casa, y a costa de Selomoh Proops’, ‘año 5478’ [i.e. 1717/1718].

An uncommon and handsomely produced Pentateuch with haftarot, printed for the use of the Spanish-speaking Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam, our copy in an attractive binding incorporating menorahs and with richly gauffered edges featuring birds and floral motifs.

£1850

PATRIZI, Francesco.

Egloga de Christi nativitate …

[Padua, Printer of Lucianus (H 10276), c. 1482.]

Extremely rare first edition of Patrizi’s pastoral poem on the birth of Christ, the first work of his to appear in print.

£4500

MESNY, William.

Mesny’s Chinese Miscellany. A Text Book of Notes on China and the Chinese, in two Volumes … Vol. I.

Shanghai, printed at the “China Gazette Office”, 1896.

The first volume, collecting the first twenty-six weekly parts issued between 26 September 1895 and 19 March 1896, of a remarkable miscellany of all things Chinese, compiled by the Jersey-born adventurer William Mesny.

£1500

FLORIO, Blasco.

Lettera sopra alcuni ostacoli che la logica, e l’ideologia presentano alle osservazioni ideologiche sugli ostacoli...

Messina, Giuseppe Fiumara, 1825.

Very rare first edition of this work on the intellectual faculties of the blind, written by the Neapolitan nobleman Blasco Florio in reply to the Osservazioni ideologiche sugli ostacoli che la cecità presenta allo sviluppo delle facoltà intellettuali dell’uomo (Catania, 1824) of the Sicilian...

£475

[ANON.] 

Le moine galant, ou la vie de Don F… Bernardin, ecrite par lui-même. 

[S.l., s.n.,] 1756. 

Scarce first edition of this satirical ‘autobiography’ of a pleasure-driven law student-turned-monk, replete with amorous adventures. 

£450

DOD, John, attributed.

A Sermon on Malt. [S.l., s.n., c. 1840].

[c. 1840].

A seemingly unrecorded printing of the famous sermon against student drunkenness attributed to the Puritan divine John Dod (1550–1645), the word ‘malt’ in the title formed from the opening of the text: ‘Mr. Dodd was a Gentleman lived within a few miles of Cambridge and had been preaching against...

£875

DENISSE, Nicolas.

Divinis humanisq[ue] dignu[m] conspectibus preclarissimum opus super quattuor novissimis cui Speculu[m] mortalium...

Rouen, Martin Morin, 15 February 1506 [1507].

Rare edition of the Speculum mortalium of the Franciscan theologian Nicolas Denisse, printed at Rouen by Martin Morin.

£1650

PIUS II, Pope (Enea Silvio PICCOLOMINI); Nicolaus DE WYLE, editor.

[Epistolae familiares; De duobus amantibus Euryalo...

[Reutlingen, Michael Greyff, not after 1478.]

First combined edition of Pius II’s personal correspondence, his best-selling epistolary erotic novel the Tale of Two Lovers, and his Description of the city of Vienna, which appears here in print for the first time.

£12500

[SERMONS.]

[Sermones sensati.]

[(Colophon:) Gouda, Gerard Leeu, 20 February 1482.]

First and only incunable edition of a rare homiletic compilation, in a strictly contemporary Netherlandish blind-stamped binding, from the abbey of Berne.

£8500

SMITH, Henry.

The Sinful Mans Search: or Seeking of God … published according to a true corrected Copie sent by the Author to...

London, [T. Scarlet for] Cuthbert Burby, [1593].

Second edition, rare, of The Sinful Mans search (1592), issued with ‘Maries Choise’ and a ‘Godley Praier’ (F8), bound with the fourth edition of The Trumpet of the Soule (1591) printed for the widow of John Perrin, with contemporary annotations.

£8500

PFEFFER DE WYDENBERG, Johannes.

[Directorium sacerdotale.]

[Basel, Johann Besicken, after 20 December 1482.]

First and only incunable edition, very rare, of a guide for priests written by the first theology professor at the University of Freiburg, provided with a helpful system for locating passages in the text.

£6500

PAULUS de Sancta Maria.

Scrutinium scripturarum.

[(Colophon:) Mainz, Peter Schoeffer, 7 January 1478.]

Fifth edition (first Strasbourg, not after May 1470), the first published by Peter Schoeffer in Mainz, of this influential treatise of Christian Hebraism cited by Erasmus, Thomas More, Luther, and Reuchlin, among others, by the Spanish converso bishop Paulus de Sancta Maria (c. 1351–1435)....

£12500

[LANSPERGER, Johannes Justus;] Serafino ACETI DE’ PORTI, translator.

Pharetra divini amoris, tradotto in volgare per Don...

Venice, Paolo Gherardo [(colophon:) Comin da Trino], 1549.

Third Italian edition, considerably enlarged, of this important devotional compendium, with a series of fine woodcuts illustrating Christ’s Passion.

£1500

LA VIGNE, André de.

Le vergier dhonneur nouvellement imprime a paris. De lentreprinse et voyage de Naples. Auquel est comprins...

[(Colophon:) Paris, Philippe le Noir], [1521–22].

George Dunn’s copy of a rare early edition of the Vergier d’honneur, a reprint of the 1512 edition by Jean Petit and Jean Frellon.

£9500

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS; Marsilio FICINO, translator.

Liber de potestate et sapientia Dei …

[(Colophon:) Venice, Damianus de Mediolano, de Gorgonzola, 10 May 1493.]

An attractive Venetian edition of the first Latin translation of the Corpus Hermeticum (sometimes known as Pimander, from the name of just the first of fourteen chapters), the foundation of Hermetic Philosophy and a fundamental text of early alchemy.

£7500

GAGUIN, Robert.

La mer des croniques et mirouer hystorial de France jadis compose en latin … et nouvellement traduict de latin...

Paris, [Bernard Aubry for] Jacques Nyverd, to be sold by Galiot du Pré, [(colophon:) 23 August 1530].

Very rare Paris vernacular edition (first 1518) of an illustrated history of the French monarchy, a seminal work of French historiography, devised as a scholarly account of France in the style of the classical historians.

£8500

[DEVOTION.]

Cy commence une petite instruction et maniere de vivre pour une femme seculiere. Comment elle se doibt conduire: en...

[Paris, Guillaume Merlin, c. 1553.]

A gathering of very rare three devotional works in French from the press of Guillaume Merlin, including a guide to spirituality and daily religious practices explicitly meant for laywomen.

£7500

[CHAMPIER, Symphorien.]

La vie & les gestes du preux chevalier Bayard. Contenant plusieurs victoires par luy faictes du Resgne...

Lyons, Olivier Arnoullet, [(colophon:) 8 April 1558].

A rare edition of Champier’s account of the preux chevalier Bayard’s life and achievements, from the renowned library of the duc de La Vallière.

£9500

[CATECHISM.]

Fundamentum eterne felicitatis omnibus hominibus utilissimum. Sedecim signa per que coniecturare possumus aliquem...

[(Colophon:) Cologne, [Retro minores (Martin von Werden?) for] Heinrich Quentell, [before September] 1498.]

Very rare first edition of this small-format catechism, with an unusually early example of printed pagination. This short catechetical text was popular with priests in the late fifteenth century, and again to the first generation of Reformers. It contains questions and answers regarding the Creed, the...

£5000