[HÖSS,] Maria Crescentia, Saint.

‘Wahre Abbildung der From[m]en Schwester Maria Crescentia des Heilige[n] Ordens S. Francisci,...

Mindelheim, Lingauer, 1744.

Extremely rare devotional engraving of Maria Crescentia Höss, a mystic and sister of the Third Order Regular of St Francis at the Franciscan convent in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, issued shortly after her death at the nearby town of Mindelheim.

£750

TERTULLIAN.

Opera … per Beatum Rhenanum Seletstadiensem e tenebris eruta, atque a situ pro virili vindicata, adiectis singulorum...

Basel, [(colophon:) Hieronymus] Froben [and Nikolaus Episcopius], March 1539.

Third Froben edition of Tertullian’s extant writings, studiously edited and re-revised by Beatus Rhenanus, with extensive annotations showing considerable engagement with the text by early readers seeking to contextualise Tertullian.

£1750

RICHARD of Wendover.

Correctorium alchymiae … Das is reformierte Alchimy, oder Alchimeibesserung, und Straffung der Alchimistischen...

Strasbourg, Bernard Jobin, 1581.

First edition of ‘a very rare collection’ (Duveen) of five alchemical treatises, comprising Richard of Wendover’s Correctorium and Reformierte Alchimei, Lull’s Apertorium et accuratio vegetabilium and Vom philosophischen Stein, and Geber’s Secretum.

£4500

MYLIUS, Georg, and Michael HOPF.

De visitatione ecclesiastica.

Jena, Tobias Steinmann, 1593.

First edition, rare, of an early work on the nature, scope, limits and jurisdiction of canonical visitations, the visitationes ecclesiasticae, a key element in the outline of jurisdiction, responsibility and control established by the Catholic Reformation in the last decades of the sixteenth century.

£200

LANDSBERG, Johannes Justus.

Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius...

Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1548.

Later edition (first 1539) of paraphrases, exegeses, and sermons by the Carthusian ascetic and mystic Johannes Landsberg (c. 1490–1539).

£950

HOFFMEISTER, Johann.

Loci communes rerum theologicarum, quae hodie in controversia agitantur, ad regulam, et consensum verae, catholicaeque...

[(Colophon:) Ingolstadt, Alexander Weissenhorn, 1547.]

First edition. In the dedication to the present work, Hoffmeister (1509–1547), one of Luther’s resolute adversaries, and Vicar General of the Augustinians in Germany, explains that there are people who wish, bono fortasse zelo, to find the truth for themselves and who hope that it may be possible...

£500

[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

BEBEL, Heinrich.

In hoc libro contine[n]tur haec Bebeliana opuscula nova. Epistola ad cancellarium de laudibus et philosophia veterum...

Strasbourg, Johann Grüninger, 1508.

First edition of a compendium of works by the noted Swabian humanist Heinrich Bebel (1472–1518), including his Facetiae, Proverbia Germanica, and selected verse.

£3500

[LE NOBLE, Pierre, and Eustache LE NOBLE (attributed).] 

Les Amours d’Anne d’Austriche, Epouse de Louis 13.  Avec le Cardinal...

‘A Cologne, Chez Pierre Marteau, 1696’ [France, early eighteenth century]. 

An early manuscript copy of a salacious – and treasonous – history arguing that Louis XIV was the illegitimate child of Anne of Austria and Cardinal Richelieu, bound with four engravings. 

£850

MILLER, Philip.

The Gardeners Kalendar, directing what works are necessary to be performed every month in the kitchen, fruit, and...

London, John Rivington, H. Woodfall, A. Millar, J. Whiston and B. White, G. Hawkins, J. Hinton, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes and W. Clarke and R....

A very attractive copy of the most popular work of Philip Miller (1691−1771), the foremost British gardener of the eighteenth century, with five folding plates of botanical illustrations.

£165

HIBBERD, James Shirley.

The Garden Oracle and floricultural Year Book … 24^th annual issue.

London, Gardener’s Magazine Office, 1882.

Edited by James Shirley Hibberd (1825–1890), one of the most successful Victorian gardening writers, founder of the Amateur Gardener and editor of the Gardener’s Magazine, the Vegetarian Advocate, and the Floral World and Garden Guide.

£100

MARTIAL.

Epigrammaton libri XIII. Ex fide vetustissimorum exemplarium, quanta fieri potuit cura vigilantiaque emendati.

Paris, Jean Libert, 1612 [(colophon:) 1613].

An uncommon small-format edition of Martial’s Epigrams, with early annotations marking passages used by the humanist poet Marot.

£650

DIOMEDES; Aelius DONATUS; Johann CAESARIUS, editor.

Grammatici opus, ab Iohanne Caesario, ita emendatum, Scholiisque illustratum,...

Hagenau, Johann Setzer, 1526.

A sammelband of four early sixteenth-century Latin grammars, from the Macclesfield Library at Shirburn Castle. The first work comprises two fourth-century Latin grammars, of which one is a rare complete survival from antiquity; this is bound with three early sixteenth-century schoolbooks on grammar and...

£1250

CUJAS, Jacques.

Iacobi Cuiacii celeberrimi I. C. recitationes in II. et IV. libros Decretalium. Nunc primum in lucem editae.

Speyer, Bernhard Albin, 1594.

First edition of these commentaries on the Decretals of Gregory IX by the famous French jurist Jacques Cujas (1522–1590), printed in Speyer and bound in doeskin.

£750

[BREVIARY, Use of Passau.]

Breviarium s[ecundu]m chorum alme Ecclesie Pataviensis.

[(Colophon:) Venice, Petrus Liechtenstein for Vienna, Lukas and Leonhard Alantsee, 25 May 1515.]

A rare Passau breviary with numerous woodcut illustrations in a contemporary Austrian binding, printed in Venice for the Austrian market.

£4500

LUCILIUS, Gaius; Franciscus DOUSA, editor.

Satyrarum quae supersunt reliquiae. Franciscus Iani F. Dousa collegit, disposuit,...

Leiden, Franciscus Raphelengius, ex Officina Plantiniana, 1597.

First edition of the earliest Roman satirical verses, the origin of modern satire, a copy that journeyed from Edam to Harvard via the Royal Library in The Hague.

£950

[NUNS.]

Il paradiso in terra aperto alle sagre vergini, nell’angustie della religiosa clausura: opera di un sacerdote secolare....

Rome, Ottavio Puccinelli, 1747.

Second edition (first 1718) of an anonymous work on cloistered nuns, dedicated by the printer to Donna Isabella Colonna (1728–1778), a Carmelite nun known as Sister Marianna Teresa Imelda of the Roman convent of Santa Maria Regina Coeli, this copy elaborately bound for her brother Cardinal Marcantonio...

£1750

PEPE, Stefano.

[Half-title: ‘Il Cappuccino d’Este del Padre Pepe’] ‘Historia Della Vita, e della Morte, et Attioni...

[Italy, second half of the seventeenth century.]

A seemingly unpublished life of Alfonso III d’Este, Duke of Modena, who renounced his title to become a Capuchin friar.

£1250

HEMINGWAY, Ernest.

A Farewell to Arms.

New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929.

First edition, first printing, without the disclaimer on p. [x] and with the Scribner’s seal on the copyright page. A Farewell to Arms, ‘the premier American war novel’ (Reynolds), was derived from Hemingway’s own experience on the Italian campaign in WWI, and was his first best-seller.

£1250

BARLOW, [Francis].

Barlow’s Birds and Beasts, in sixty-seven excellent and useful Prints, being a Collection of the chief Works...

London, Carington Bowles, [John Bowles, and Robert Sayer], [1775].

An extremely rare edition of this drawing-book collecting several suites of plates by or after Francis Barlow, with a particularly fine suite of etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar.

£8500