{"title":"Annotated","description":"\u003cp\u003eFeaturing scholarly notes, commentary, and explanations expanding and interpreting the original text.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"de-lorme-philibert","title":"DE L'ORME, Philibert","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe third edition, using all the woodcuts of the first (1561), of this important and beautifully printed and illustrated treatise. De L Orme (c.1510-1570),was one of the great Renaissance architects of the 16th century, the first French architect to possess the universal outlook of the Italian masters without merely imitating them. Mindful that French architectural requirements differed from the Italian, and respectful of native materials, he founded his designs on sound engineering principles, fusing the orders with a delicacy of invention, restraint, and harmony characteristic of purest French classicism. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  the simple woodcuts are excellent examples of perfectly understood and clearly presented structural details and show De Lorme s system of built up timber roofs, requiring no ties or heavy timbers, which was successfully used as late as the end of the eighteenth century in the Halle-aux-Bles in Paris. Indeed, De Lorme is unique among the early writers on architecture for the emphasis he placed upon construction. ..A copy of the 1576 edition was in the library of Thomas Jefferson (Sowerby, No. 4183).  Fowler (on the first edition). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Of the leading early French architectural writers, De Lorme is the most interesting and original, but is less distinguished an artist than Jean Bullant and is less versatile as a draughtsman than Du Cerceau. De Lorme has been called the first modern architect because of his original contributions to construction and his skill as an organizer, but Blomfield says that  It was by his strong individuality rather than by his art that De Lorme won, and has maintained, his place among the great Frenchmen of the sixteenth century  (Blomfeld French Arch. I Vol. I p. 92)  Fowler. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  First published in 1561 the  Nouvelles inventions (the treatise on roofs) describes ingenious techniques which replace the use of large rectilinear pieces of square section, with small flat and curved elements assembled like keystones. This new invention appears to comply with a rational approach in industrial terms, in that it keeps costs down, standardises construction and means that a relatively unqualified workforce can be employed. These innovative ideas, which were too revolutionary to achieve much success despite the persuasive force of the author, were not put into practice properly until after 1750, the date when the modern science of building properly emerged.  Vaughan Hart  Paper Palaces   The treatise  Le nouvelles inventions  .... is a milestone in the history of wood inventions as it contains different conceptions of how wood can be used. Anyone who wishes to study wooden roofing has to consider the theories of this French architect.  Maria Rita Campa.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE L'ORME, Philibert","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117543247,"sku":"L1511","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_fd11f9cf-817b-46f8-b4ec-4ea1f92e5ab8.png?v=1781795304"},{"product_id":"justinus-with-gellius-aulus","title":"JUSTINUS [with] GELLIUS, Aulus","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very clean and wide-margined copy of two Venetian incunables in a strictly contemporary and very attractive Renaissance binding. The second work notably features a fine instance of the kind of large Greek type used in the 1480s, illustrated by Proctor, who praised it for 'the regularity and size which make it the best type of its class' (p.127). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Justinus was a second century Roman historian. This, his most notable work, he describes as a collection of the most interesting and important passages from Pompeius Trogus' 'Historiae philippicae et totius mundi origina et terrae situs', written in the time of Augustus and now lost. This was a general history of those parts of the world that had come under the auspices of Alexander the Great, and takes as its main theme the Macedonian Empire founded by his father Philip. The last event it records (in Justinius' version) is in 20 B.C. Through his frequent digressions, Justinus here produces not an epitome but rather a useful and sometimes elegant anthology based on the work. It was very popular in the Middle Ages, when the author was frequently confused with Justin Martyr. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Noctes Atticae consists of a miscellaneous anthology on various topics, including philosophy, law, literature, grammar, and history. Gellius (c. 125 - c. 180) wrote the book for the education of his children during his winter nights in Attica, and the work proved very popular into and throughout the Middle Ages. It grew out of a commonplace book that Gellius kept, in which he recorded items of unusual interest that he heard in conversation or read about. The book deliberately has no specific structure, and of the twenty books only 19 have come down to us - the 8th is known only through its index. In it, Gellius quotes extensively from Greek and Latin authors, many of whose works have not survived - the book is therefore a valuable resource in preserving fragments of writings otherwise entirely lost. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding, although elements of its decoration are common to several printing centres in Italy at this time, bears a strong resemblance to a number of bindings known to have been produced at Venice (and in particular to de Marinis' no. 1532 in vol II of his 'Legatura Artistica in Italia'). In its decoration it shows elements of the assimilation of Eastern design in Italian bookbinding, especially by the Byzantine\/Ottoman nature of the central knotwork tools. It must previously have been very grand, and shows evidence of elegant and arabesque furniture at the corners and at the centre of the covers. The furniture would most likely have been bronze or silver; the remaining studs holding the stubs of the ties are in bronze. The binding is still an elegant example of Renaissance bookbinding craftsmanship and examples in this condition and are invariably rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JUSTINUS [with] GELLIUS, Aulus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120459599,"sku":"L446","price":14500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L446-8.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"rhodiginus-caelius","title":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of these massive and learned commentaries of the Italian Renaissance in sixteen books. Caelius Rhodiginus is the humanist nickname of Ludovico Ricchieri (1469-1525), a respected professor of Latin and Greek in Rovigo. In 1511, Rhodiginus moved to Milan to take over the lectureship of Demetrios Chalcondyles, under the auspices of the city treasurer and renowned book collector Jean Grolier. The Antiquae lectiones are dedicated to Grolier, with a remembrance of Aldus Manutius, recently dead. The work gathers together a considerable number of short essays and notes on Latin and Greek antiquity, ranging from literature, philology and science to philosophy, history, anthropology and morality. Remarkable considerations on ancient music are to be found in book five, chapters XX-XXIX. The somewhat confusing encyclopaedic structure was modelled after Gellio s Noctes Atticae and Erasmus s Adagia. The book was very well received and was frequently reprinted up to 1666. Despite some initials charges of plagiarism, even Erasmus ended up to value Ricchieri s work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In his Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (London 1869, I, p. 272), Henry Hallam defines it as  by far the best and most extensive collection hitherto made from the stores of antiquity. It is now hardly remembered; but obtained almost universal praise, even from severe critics, for the deep erudition of its author, who, in a somewhat rude style, pours forth explanations of obscure and emendations of corrupted passages, with profuse display of knowledge in the customs and even philosophy of the ancients, but more especially in medicine and botany.  This copy was annotated by a contemporary reader mainly interested in the philosophical passages, while the owner inscribing the head of the title-page commented on two musical essays at pp. 231-233.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127537487,"sku":"L1764","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Last-Import-12_a9eeeffe-642c-4401-8518-6877f99995a2.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"origen-adamantius-with-aquinas-thomas-and-origen-adamantius","title":"ORIGEN Adamantius [with] AQUINAS, Thomas [and] ORIGEN Adamantius","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn appealing collection of influential biblical commentaries, including the first editions of Origen s rare homiletic exegesis on the Pentateuch, the Books of Joshua, and Judges and St Paul s letter to the Romans, all in the Latin translations of St. Jerome. Origenes Adamantius (c.185-c.254) was the most prominent textual critic of the Bible of the early Church as well as an authoritative and prolific commentator. He exerted great influence especially over Eusebius and Jerome, though some of his radical ideas (i.e. the final redemption of all creatures and their ultimate reconciliation with God) prevented him from being regarded as a Church Father.   Together with the pioneering edition of the Bible comparing six different versions of the Hebrew and Greek tradition (Hexapla), the numerous homilies Origenes preached in Caesarea represent his most relevant contribution to early Christian Biblical scholarship. The central work bound in this volume is the third edition of Thomas Aquinas' commentary on St. John's gospel, first published in Rome in 1470. That this collection was used by contemporary scholars is proved by the numerous annotations of two German hands, reporting mainly biblical references.  The Aldine edition of Origenes marks an important turning point in the history of this famous press. In its anonymous preface to the reader, the role taken by Andrea Torresani, Aldus's father-in-law and business partner, was finally acknowledged in print: men of letters were said to be indebted equally to Andrea s generosity as an entrepreneur and to Aldus s outstanding skill as a humanist printer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ORIGEN Adamantius [with] AQUINAS, Thomas [and] ORIGEN Adamantius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131010895,"sku":"L2156","price":15000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2156-Origen-1-e1450291411161.jpg?v=1781795262"},{"product_id":"ribadeneyra-pedro-de","title":"RIBADENEYRA, Pedro de","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe gilt arms belong to the Catalan patriot Josep de Margarit i de Biure (1602-85), member of a baronial family from Girona. Josep fought as a general of the Catalan army siding with the French against Spanish aggression into Catalan territory. For his support, he was appointed governor of Catalonia by Louis XIII. In particular, he played a major part in the Catalan  revolta dels Segadors  (1640-52) which concluded with the capitulation of Barcelona to Spain after a dramatic siege. As a reward for his courage, his Aguilar estate was turned into a marquisate by Louis XIV. Josep spent the last years of his life in exile in Perpignan where he continued to defend Catalan identity in Roussillon, annexed to France with the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659). The bearing of the arms of Catalonia, Navarre and Aragon-Sicily had been granted by King Juan II to Josep s C15 ancestor, the bishop Juan Margarit, as a reward for his defence of the city of Girona. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The C17 annotator of this copy interested in the long  letter to the Christian reader  may have been Josep de Margarit himself. In a section discussing the reasons why a prince might want to continue a war through violence or political pressure, he highlighted a passage stating that  in order to destroy any city or province without a war, there is nothing like presenting them as places full of sin and vice, and to persuade [his subjects] that past injuries are never forgotten, despite the benefits received . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Very good, clean, well-margined copy of this intriguing anti-Machiavellian Jesuit work in Castilian. This is the fourth edition published by the Antwerp printer Jan Moretus, who held the royal privilege for some of the most successful liturgical works of the Counter- Reformation. Born and raised in Toledo, Pedro de Ribadeneyra (1527-1611) was admitted to the Jesuit order in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola, of whom he would later write the first biography. After studying theology and rhetoric at Leuven, Paris and Padua, he taught at Italian and German Jesuit colleges, was sent on missions to Belgium and England by Ignatius himself and held important posts in Italy. Dedicated to Philip II of Spain,  Tratado  presented Machiavelli s ideal Christian prince as a misleading model contrived by an impious and godless  politician  a member of  the worst sect invented by Satan  to destroy piety, virtue and godly fear. He opposed the Machiavellian belief that history and  reason of state  were shaped by fortune, not religion and virtue, explaining how religion and  reason of state  were instead inseparable, and how a true Christian prince should defend the Catholic faith whilst piously administering government. The second part explores the fundamental concept of dissimulation a feigned  mask of virtue  which Machiavelli s prince should sometimes wear. Ribadeneira condemned dissimulation as a sin except for good reasons, e.g., maintaining secrecy for the sake of political prudence a behaviour equally adopted by Jesuits through  equivocation , an ironically near-Machiavellian variation of dissimulation used to escape persecution.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RIBADENEYRA, Pedro de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816153162063,"sku":"L2289","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2289-1-1.jpg?v=1781794928"},{"product_id":"abravanel-juda-ben-isaac","title":"ABRAVANEL, Juda ben Isaac.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAbravanel s (1465   ca. 1535) important philosophical treatise on love, first published posthumously in 1535. The Dialoghi was exceedingly popular and went through at least five editions (four by Aldus) in twenty years, and was quickly translated into French, Hebrew and Latin. It is notably one of the first original philosophical compositions to be published in the vernacular.  Don Yehudah Abrabanel, the son of Rabbi Yitshak Abrabanel, has been one of the most extraordinary and fascinating personalities in Jewish philosophy on the threshold of modernity. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n His Dialoghi d Amore has become one of the most celebrated books of Renaissance literature and thought. Despite his personal afflictions   the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the abduction and forced conversion of his son by the King of Portugal (about which he wrote a moving poem  complaint on the times )   he has bequeathed to us one of the most outstanding philosophical books of the epoch. Dialoghi d Amore is one of the chief expressions of Italian Platonism, revived and flourishing at the time.  Ze ev Levy.Modeled on the Platonic dialogue, the Dialoghi d Amore examines the nature of spiritual and intellectual love, which is regarded by Abravanel as the principle dominating all existence, reaching its apotheosis in the love of God. He structured his three dialogues as a conversation between two  characters , Philo, representing love, and Sophia, representing science or wisdom. The first dialogue is a contemplation on the distinctions between love and desire, or the types of love and their true nature. The second postulates that love is the dominant principle of all life and describes how love operates in human beings  lives. The third and most lengthy is a discussion of God s love, how it encompasses all of existence, from the lowest creatures to the heavens. A discussion of beauty and the soul follows, with an analysis of Plato s ideas. The dialogues cover a huge range of subjects including beauty, the intellect, fascination, the influence of the planets, reproduction, nature, psychology, mans place in the universe, creation, reason, friendship, virtue, poetry and much more.  Abrabanel attempts (especially in the third dialogue of his book) to bring about a merger between Jewish-religious conceptions and Renaissance Platonism. To this purpose he welds together the Jewish concept of love of God with a religious-aesthetic idealization of the world. For the first time in the history of Jewish thought, there was a philosopher who awarded space to aesthetic reflections .. and who set out to explicate and define beauty.  Ze ev Levy. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Vivian de Sola Pinto (1895-1969) was a poet, professor, literary critic, translator and historian ??. A close friend of Siegfried Sassoon and his second in command on the western front, he appears in  Memoirs of an Infantry Officer  etc under the pseudonym Velmore. A leading authority on D.H. Lawrence, Pinto gave evidence for the defence in the 1960  Lady Chatterly s lover  obscenity trial. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n An unsophisticated copy of this important work, beautifully printed at the Aldine press.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ABRAVANEL, Juda ben Isaac.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816154702159,"sku":"L2931","price":2350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190807_143913.jpg?v=1781794921"},{"product_id":"herrera-gabriel-alonso-de","title":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery scarce edition of this extremely successful and ground-breaking manual of agriculture in Castilian. Gabriel Alonso de Herrera (1470-1539) was a Franciscan agronomist and brother to the humanist Hernando and the musician Diego Alonso de Herrera. He is most renowned for this  Libro de agricultura , first printed in Spain in 1513, which underwent over 20 editions in just a few decades and was translated into Latin, Italian and French. It was a compilation based on a variety of agricultural and medical sources, including Greek (Galen and Hippocrates), Arabic (Avenzoar and Avicenna), and Latin  De re rustica  authors (Columella, Cato, Varro and Palladius). Following the classical tradition, Herrera presented a holistic view of the agronomist as knowledgeable in the cultivation of crops and trees, techniques for making soil and water suitable for agriculture and horticulture, the forecast of adverse weather conditions, farming and herbal medical remedies. He also injected into this solid tradition new ideas based on contemporary agricultural theories and his own experience concerning the identification of high-quality seed which should be grown separately from the rest to improve the quality of crops, as well as plant reproductive morphology, i.e., he believed that plants could be masculine or feminine. Juan de Valverde s  Despertador  and Guti érrez Salinas s  Discursos  similarly deal with agricultural and horticultural techniques; the first also discusses farming and the use of beasts of burden as well as the remedies to preserve one s estate in times of famine and inclement weather. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  The printer, Mat√≠as Mares, intended this text to be bound with Juan de Valverde s  Despertador , Diego Guti érrez Salinas s  Discursos del pan y del vino del Ni√±o Jes√∫s  originally printed in Alcal√° de Henares in 1600 and here summarised and Gregorio de los Rios s  Agricultura de jardines  printed in Zaragoza in 1604. This copy contains the 4 ll. of preliminaries (plus an additional leaf of errata) and 242 ll. of text which encompass the (complete) works by Herrera, Valverde and Salinas. The separately printed 6 ll. containing de los Rios s work were not bound in this copy, as Palau, see below.  \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n  Jos é de Aguirre SJ was an Inquisitor whose  expurgatorio  dating from the 1640s is recorded in other Spanish books. He authored the pamphlet  Profec√≠a de Santa Hildegardis .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HERRERA, Gabriel Alonso de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155947343,"sku":"L2970a","price":1850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4157.jpg?v=1781794911"},{"product_id":"doglioni-giovanni-nicolo-1","title":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce copy of this important didactic almanac including the prediction of weather conditions, planetary influence and a perpetual calendar  one of the earliest if not the earliest almanack according to the Gregorian Calendar unknown to Poggendorff  ( Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica  1076). Giovanni Nicol√≤ Doglioni (1548-1629) was a Venetian notary appointed to several public offices in the city, and the author of works on chronology, cosmography and the calculation of time.  L anno  contextualised for a broader audience the reform of the Julian calendar introduced by Gregory XIII in 1582 a revision which led to major scholarly debates on  gnomonica  or the computation of the portions of the solar day. The first section of the work discusses the four elements that constitute the world, the subdivisions of the earth into continents, countries and provinces, the meteorological phenomena resulting from the mixture of the elements as well as a table tracing the movements of the planets. In the second section Doglioni explains the subdivisions of time according to conventional units. The fundamental unit the day can be natural (following the planetary course of the sun in relation to the earth as a whole) or artificial (according to the specific place in which the onlooker is situated). This distinction is used as the basis to explain the correct construction of sundials on buildings. There follows an examination of the subdivision of historical time the discipline of chronology so dear to the medieval and Renaissance periods and the meaning of  century ,  age ,  age of man  and  age of the world , with a perpetual calendar and a long table recording universal dates and events from the creation to the year 5545 [1586AD]. Later owners annotated the perpetual calendar counting the days for the years 1646, 1668 and 1709. The last section provides perpetual calendars to identify Feasts of the Saints and moveable liturgical feasts. It was reprinted as  L anno riformato  in 1599 and its tables accordingly updated. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Giovanni Battista Lambruschini S.J. (1755-1827) was professor at the Jesuit seminary in Genoa, a great opponent of the French Revolution and the centre of a Jesuit circle including the renowned philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156078415,"sku":"L2885","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_e03e142e-f040-46f2-84c1-4d818e74ac66.png?v=1781794912"},{"product_id":"fabri-ottavio","title":"FABRI, Ottavio","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn excellent copy of the first edition of this important work on the application of triangulation. Ottavio Fabri (fl. late C16-early C17) was an Italian mathematician of whom little is known. His greatest contribution to the discipline, immortalized in this work, was the invention of the  squadra mobile , a brass geometrical instrument to  measure, level and transfer onto paper every distance, height and depth , with applications in astronomy, geometry and the measuring of terrain. The edition was printed in two issues with differing preliminaries, though no priority has been established. The first section is devoted to measurements and includes comparisons between units used in different cities (the  Braccio toscano  in Florence, the  Tornadure  in Cervia) or countries ( Piedi  in France and the Trevigian  Pertica  in Cologne). He proceeds to explain the construction of the instrument; this part was illustrated by an engraved plate portraying the  squadra mobile , absent in most copies. The best material for the instrument, he found, is copper, a piece of which  as thick as a knife s back  can be bought  from any ironmonger in town . He even advertised the best craftsman in Venice to assemble the instrument,  M. Battista degli Horologli  in his Spadaria shop, who made clocks and scales. The rest, illustrated with handsome engravings, explains the most common applications of the instruments in measuring from various positions the distance, depth and height, in relative and absolute terms, of buildings, hills, allotments, etc. The  squadra mobile  could even be used to map a city s area without a compass both from inside or outside its walls. Illustration XIII pasted on p. 37 appears to have been an editorial afterthought as it is also found in the NYPL copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FABRI, Ottavio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816160207183,"sku":"L3013","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Fabri-L3013-1.jpg?v=1781794900"},{"product_id":"euclid-2","title":"EUCLID","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis outstanding copy was printed on blue paper for presentation. No copies on blue paper of this edition are recorded in major bibliographies or at US libraries. Intended as a substitute for parchment, blue paper was first employed by Aldus, and perfected by Giolito, for  deluxe  copies prepared for important personalities. It became an increasingly widespread practice with selected copies of particularly scientific and architectural works in the course of the C16. The translator and commentator of this edition, Federico Commandino, had also overseen the printing on blue paper of a limited Latin edition of Euclid s  Elements  in 1572. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Very rare copy, on blue paper, of the first Italian translation of Euclid s  Elements  edited by Federico Commandino. Commandino (1509-75) was a humanist from Urbino renowned for his translations of the works of ancient Greek mathematicians including Aristarchus of Samos and Pappus of Alexandria. Several of his Latin (and later vernacular) renditions of Greek mathematical terms, for which he relied on previous adaptations by Roman authors like Cicero and Vitruvius, became the standard. Euclid (4th century BC) was the first to reunite mathematical theories from the ancient world into a coherent, bi-dimensional system centred on simple axioms of plane geometry, based on angles and distance, from which further propositions (or theorems) could be deduced. His  Elements  began with the crucial definition of  point ,  that which has no part nor size  and which is only determined by two numbers defining its position in space the fundamental notion on which the Euclidean geometrical system is based. The fifteen books of the work, the last two of which are now considered spurious, discuss plane and solid geometry, the theory of proportion and the properties of rational and irrational numbers. Euclid s  Elements  was commonly used in schools for centuries and is  the oldest mathematical textbook in the world  (PMM 25). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to an early mathematician who wrote a long marginal re-phrasing of a corollary. Between the late C18 and early C19, it was in the collection of the bibliophile Count Remigio Filiberto Costa della Trinit√†.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EUCLID","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816160862543,"sku":"K135","price":39500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K135-5.jpg?v=1781794897"},{"product_id":"busbecq-ogier-ghislain-de","title":"BUSBECQ, Ogier Ghislain de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of these remarkably important letters on Turkey, written in the 1550s, with the only surviving glossary of a long-extinct Germanic language. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522-92) was a scholar, keen herbalist and diplomat in the service of the Austrian monarchy; he spent several years in Constantinople where he negotiated the boundaries of disputed territories and was involved in politics at the court of Suleyman the Magnificent. First published without authorial licence in Paris in 1589 as  Itinerarium Constantinopolitanum ,  Epistolae  is his most famous work and one of the earliest Western testimonies on the Ottoman world. It gathers letters which Busbecq sent to the Hungarian diplomat Nicholas Michault. In addition to observations on the natural environment, he included in his work the first and only recorded glossary (80 words), as well as the excerpt of a song, in a Crimean dialect. Having heard of a Germanic language being spoken in Turkey, he managed to have an interview with a native speaker noting words close to Dutch (e.g.,  tag   day ,  plut   blood ), others which differed, and cardinal numbers (Considine,  Dictionaries , 140-41). Busbecq also expresses strong opinions on the conquest of the New World, as colonisers  seek the Indies and the Antipodes through the vastity of the ocean because there the booty is easy to take from na√Øve and gullible natives, without bloodshed . One of the English annotators of this copy, who wrote in English, Greek, Latin and Arabic, was a scholar at University College, Oxford, as per ex-libris on t-p. He wrote in Arabic the word  sherbet  to gloss a sentence on  sorbet , a cooling fruit drink typical of Eastern territories; according to the OED, the word was first recorded in English in 1603. He was also interested in Busbecq s observations on Turkish flora and fauna, as he glossed  glycyrrhiza  as  liquorish  and  sicedula  as  nightingale  and  beccafico . The Latin verse on the fly reprises some of the epigraphs which Busbecq used to conclude his accounts, e.g., the Tacitean  religion is the pretext, the object is gold  in his discussion of the conquest of the New World. A very influential work in the history of Western perceptions of the Ottoman world. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A jeweller named William Leedes took part in expeditions of the Turkey Company in 1579 and 1584, with other merchant adventurers, arriving as far as Baghdad.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BUSBECQ, Ogier Ghislain de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816167645519,"sku":"L3181b","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3181b-2.jpg?v=1781794864"},{"product_id":"gregory-i","title":"GREGORY I.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis edition  rigorous   with a handsome Gothic typeface  is included among those  of priceless value according to the unanimous opinion of bibliographers  produced by the Torresani two years after Manutius had left, on amicable terms, to set up his own press (Bernoni,  Dei Torresani , 79, n.89). This was also the penultimate edition of the C15. From a Patrician Roman family, Gregory (504-604AD) served as prefect, the highest office in Rome, before deciding to devote his life to the Christian church. Albeit keen on monastic meditation, he was, for his talents in diplomacy and administration, elected pope. He famously organised the first systematic mission to Britain, including Augustine of Canterbury, to convert the Anglo-Saxons.  Moralia  was written during his diplomatic stay at the court of Tiberius II in Constantinople, and it was completed after his papal appointment. His major work,  Moralia  is also one of the longest Western theological texts. It is a monumental commentary on moral questions raised in the book of Job addressed in their historical, moral, allegorical and typological sense Job being interpreted as a prefiguration of Christ and of the persecuted Church.  Encyclopaedic and synoptic, it is a cornucopia brimming with odd bits of information about the natural world, medicine, human nature, and society mixed unpredictably with sober analyses of guilt and sin, disquisitions on Christology, and reflections on the Church s place in the world, along with the unfolding of Job s story  a manual for Christian life (Straw,  Job s Sin , 72-73). The sparse annotator of this copy glossed two sections as  allegoria  and  moralitas . Handsome, fresh copy of one of the most influential theological works.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GREGORY I.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820342190415,"sku":"L3283","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_7468-scaled.jpg?v=1781794840"},{"product_id":"reuchlin-johann","title":"REUCHLIN, Johann.","description":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting annotated copy of this famous anti-Catholic satirical play. Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) was a German humanist, and one of the earliest scholars of Greek in Germany, trained at Paris and Basel; he was known for his theories of Greek pronunciation. Having fled to Heidelberg after the death of his patron, Count Eberhard of W√ºrttenberg, he gained the position of tutor to the children of Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine. His sister s grandson was the Protestant Philip Melanchthon, with whom he fell out after the Reformation. Despite his Catholicism, Reuchlin was critical of aspects of the Roman Church like the frequently debatable behaviour of monks and the commerce of false relics the subject of this play. First published in 1504 and much reprinted,  Sergius  marked  the beginning of Neo-Latin comedy in Germany  (Dall Asta,  Lateinische Drama , 14). Its title refers to Sergius\/Bahira, a Nestorian monk of the 6th century and the narrative persona of Reuchlin s adversary, the Augustinian Conrad Holzinger who prophesized to Muhammad his glorious future. Considered a heretical monk and the inspiration to the Christian content of the Qur an, he was a frequent presence in Renaissance anti-Islamic writings. In the play, Sergius stands as the heretical monk par excellence  the chief of the chiefs  of  all lechery  , the head without soul or reason . The other characters take on the role of social critics following the ancient Roman comic tradition. The contemporary annotator was especially interested in Act I. He studiously noted information on Reuchlin on the t-p, and appears to have been studying the text as a fine example of Neo-Latin prose. He glossed it with interlinear and marginal notes on metrics (linked to debates on Neo-Latin poetry), figures of speech, synonyms and references to Quintilian and the work of contemporary scholars like Jacob Spiegel, close to Protestant humanist circles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"REUCHLIN, Johann.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820342223183,"sku":"L3333","price":3500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6808-scaled.jpg?v=1781794840"},{"product_id":"guillermus-parisiensis-with-agricola-daniel","title":"GUILLERMUS PARISIENSIS [with] AGRICOLA, Daniel","description":"\u003cp\u003eContemporary hand-coloured copies, in fine C16 Swiss binding, of these successful works addressed to priests, to improve their understanding of  lessons  from the Gospels, read at liturgy. These didactic manuals, intended to be bound together, are illustrated with superb full-page or smaller woodcuts by the Swiss artist Urs Graf, added to decorate and facilitate memorisation, even more striking, as here, in fresh period colouring. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first work is William of Auvergne s (or Guillelmus Parisiensis, c.1180-1249) major commentary ( postilla ), first published in Lyon in 1471. Appointed bishop of Paris in 1228, he was a Scholastic theologian and the first medieval philosopher who sought to reconcile Christian doctrines with Aristotelianism. Addressed to  less experienced clerics and preachers in their early stages ,  Postille  presents on each page a small excerpt ( lesson ) from the Epistles or Gospels to be read on Sundays or weekdays of specific parts of the liturgical year, surrounded by a commentary based on authorities like Nicolaus de Lyra, Rabanus and the Glossa Ordinaria.  More than one hundred editions of the  Postilla    were printed during the C15. Surely this esteemed compilation must be regarded as one of the earliest  best sellers  [...]. This compilation of the  Postilla  was written down in 1437 expressly for members of the clergy and for those desirous of understanding the excerpts \u003cbr\u003e\n from the Epistles and the Evangelists, more commonly called lessons, which are read at appropriate services throughout the church year. It obviously filled a most pressing need  (Goff,  Postilla , 73). The  Passio  shares a similar structure and purpose. First published in 1511 by the Swiss Franciscan preacher Daniel Agricola (or Meyer, 1490-1540), it presents excerpts almost a concordance from the Gospels  narration of Christ s passion, surrounded by glosses, as an instrument to facilitate the composition of Lenten homilies. It is prefixed by an index entitled  Directorium in Dominice Passionis articulos  with the imprint 1513. The early annotator (and perhaps painter) of these copies, probably the Swiss Jacob Thursson, was a preacher. He was interested in the proper behaviour that becomes ministers of the church, who should pursue  what honours God and is helpful to people , keeping  a humble mind and a pure flesh . He also highlighted explanations of key issues such as that the proof of Christ s divinity came from  the union of the Word and the flesh in the Virgin s womb , and minor points like the true geographical position of the region of Pamphylia. Most interestingly, he added marginalia with typological cross-references to the Old Testament, summarising several sections with a brief sentence. Some annotations appear to be prayers (e.g.,  Custos Virginis que pro morte nostra adesse ) which we have not been able \u003cbr\u003e\n to trace, or notes jotted down in preparation for homilies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GUILLERMUS PARISIENSIS [with] AGRICOLA, Daniel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820343763279,"sku":"L3284","price":5500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3284-2.jpg?v=1781794829"},{"product_id":"bentzius-johannes","title":"BENTZIUS, Johannes","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn elaborately bound copy of the second, substantially enlarged edition of this scarce Latin-German lexicon. The lovely contemporary binding of German influence, as shown by the traces of green, black and red paint on the vellum, suggests this was a present. Johann Bentz (fl. late C16-early C17) from Brussels was professor at Strasbourg, and the author of Latin textbooks on rhetoric and grammar. This is the second, much enlarged edition ( alterum ), published by the same printer in the same year as the first ( primum ). Like the first, it is divided into subjects (or  loci ), e.g., God, the soul, justice, temperance, history, the state, geometry, medicine, astronomy, the graphic crafts and the  evil  arts. Under  De graphicis artificiis  are  typographia ,  typographus ,  excudere ,  operae typographicae ,  typus ,  loculi  or  capsulae  (the printers  type drawers),  praelum ,  sphaera ,  atramentum typographicum  (blank ink),  minium  (red ink),  fusor typorum  (the type founder),  bibliopegus  (bookbinder), and  compingere  (to bind). In most sections, Latin words are listed alphabetically, with a German translation. This second edition was reset in double column, and substantially revised with additional Latin and German synonyms, and long lists of related Latin phrases (either adjectives or verbs), so that the young owner could learn how to write in Latin on specific subjects (traditional and contemporary) using an idiomatic language. A detailed subject and a diagrammatic index were added as preliminaries, and the work concluded with an 83-page dictionary of all the German words mentioned in the work. A scarce work of linguistic and typographical interest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BENTZIUS, Johannes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820344648015,"sku":"L3193b","price":7950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/spinebook.png?v=1781794823"},{"product_id":"erasmus-with-plutarch","title":"ERASMUS. [with] PLUTARCH.","description":"\u003cp\u003eInteresting, annotated, very scarce Parisian editions of Erasmus s and Plutarch s collections of maxims the second unrecorded in major bibliographies. Erasmus (1466-1536), the greatest humanist and philologist of the northern Renaissance, wrote some of the most important  mirrors for princes  ( Institutio principis Christianis , 1516) and educational works for the elites ( Adagia , 1500). Like the latter,  Apophthegmata  was a collection of sayings gathered from Greek and Latin lives of great personalities including Plutarch, Suetonius and Xenophon, grouped according to the virtue they epitomise. First published in 1531, it is here in a new, revised and enlarged edition. This copy was also marked by a near contemporary censor, as shown by his note on the t-p, stating that  Erasmus s works should be read with caution  and expunged due to his  corruption . Several passages (e.g., one called  Deus insepultus ) were highlighted by the censor, and one was erased with the gloss  vox Erasmi  ( the voice of Erasmus ). From the Index of 1564, Erasmus was included as an author permitted but in need of expurgation; however, this work and the similar  Adagia  were never mentioned specifically or especially targeted (Pabel, 146). The C16 annotator of this copy glossed extensively the dedicatory epistle and the first sections on Agasicles and Agesilaus, kings of Sparta. He was especially interested in material derived from Plutarch s  Apophthegmata Regum et Imperatorum  (of kings and emperors) and  Apophthegmata Laconica  (of Spartans), a very scarce Parisian edition of which, printed in 1507 by Jehan Petit, was bound together with Erasmus s work by an early owner. Plutarch (46-120AD) was a Roman magistrate and ambassador, and one of the most influential authors in the Renaissance for his biographies of the lives of the emperors and great ancient personalities, and wise maxims derived from them. Each is contextualised within a short anecdote from the lives of personalities including Silla, Diogenes, Lycurgus and Periander.  Apophthegmata regum , in the Latin translations by Francesco Filelfo and Raffaele Regio, and  Apophthegmata Laconica , together with  Moralia  in Greek, were Erasmus s models.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ERASMUS. [with] PLUTARCH.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346581327,"sku":"L3415","price":3350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9396.jpg?v=1781794810"},{"product_id":"mazzolini-da-prieiro-silvestro","title":"MAZZOLINI DA PRIEIRO, Silvestro.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy, in its original Flemish binding, of this most important legal work. Silvestro Mazzolini da Prierio (or Prierias, 1456\/7-1527) was a Dominican theologian, professor at Bologna, Pavia and Rome, and Master of the Sacred Palace from 1511, by request of Julius II. He is renowned for being the first Catholic theologian to publish a critique based on the Indulgences section of his  Summa  on Luther s theses on papal authority in 1519 (Tavuzzi,  Luther s Catholic Opponents , 224). Among his wide-ranging works, including astronomy and demonology,  Summa summarum , or  Summa Sylvestrina , was the most successful. First published in 1514, it was reprinted over 50 times. It is an alphabetic compendium of varied theological and legal questions, spanning sacraments, adultery, divorce, holy water, natural and illegitimate children, murder, heresy, bigamy, ban for clerics to fight in war, juridical issues (e.g., accusation and oaths), and alchemy, reaffirming Catholic beliefs. The near contemporary annotator noted this in his glosses to the Eucharist section, mentioning the Lutheran position (officially formulated in 1536), based on Mark 14 and Luke 22, that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the consecrated bread and wine. More generally, he highlighted adding notes from authorities like Gregory IX s  Decretals , and  updates  from the Lateran Council V (1512-17) questions involving criminal law (e.g., if people accused and condemned to execution can defend themselves), canon law (e.g., ecclesiastical benefices, elections, excommunication, masses, burials, simony, superstition), and practical questions such as the materials allowed for the making of chalices (i.e., not prone to rusting or fragility), and that  altars should not be made of wood or earth, but of stone , which he glossed with explanations, also on decorations allowed, with references to the Old Testament. He added glosses on the confessions of condemned criminals, on the scaffold and at the stake. In the C17, this copy was in the library of the monastery of the Augustinians of the Order of the Holy Cross in Cuik, North Brabant. Its wealthy library, with over 1400 books including mss and incunabula, was dispersed after Napoleon s suppression of religion orders in 1812 (Hermans,  Annales , 172). Rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MAZZOLINI DA PRIEIRO, Silvestro.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820347367759,"sku":"L3286","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1.-Mazzolini-cover.jpg?v=1781794810"},{"product_id":"boethius-1","title":"BOETHIUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe illuminated C follows a frequent ms. tradition portraying Boethius in prison. Unlike most, however, Boethius is shown half-figure, alone, behind bars. The rubrication and overall style are reminiscent of German-speaking Central Europe. Boethius s hat, remote from usual representations, looks vaguely Slavonic. Whilst the smaller initials and decorative layout of the C were produced by a professional, the portrait may be by the rubricator himself. Boethius s unusual blue hair and beard suggest the artist did not have lead white, useless for rubrication. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n An excellent, fresh, very tall copy, in a handsome Sunderland binding, of this milestone of Western philosophy the second Koberger edition, including both the Latin text and the long commentary attributed to Thomas Aquinas, but probably written by the Oxford Dominican Thomas Waleys (1287?-1350?). One of the most influential early Christian philosophers, Boethius (477-524AD) was a Roman politician at service of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths. He probably studied in Athens where he became fluent in Greek and acquainted with important Hellenic philosophers. Imprisoned by Theodoric upon charges of high treason, he famously wrote  De Consolatione philosophiae  in 523-24 during a one-year imprisonment, eventually leading to his execution. The work reflects on the negative turn of events in Boethius s hitherto very successful career. In this fictional dialogue, Lady Philosophy consoles him, as they discuss the evanescent nature of worldly fame and riches, virtue, the ills of fortune, human folly, passion, hatred, free will, justice and predestination, with Boethius s Christianity heavily tempered by Hellenism. Waleys s commentary was one of the most successful and most reprinted. Boethius s work was taught at grammar schools for its elegant Latin and educational content, and lectured on at universities for its philosophical value. The contemporary annotator provided interlinear paraphrases of the first four pages, with Boethius s verse complaint, the apparition of Lady Philosophy, and her initial arguments. In addition to turning everything to the third person, glossing  ego  with  Boethius , the annotator provided synonyms of most words or phrases, seeking to follow the original meaning whilst slightly altering the lines. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding is typical of Charles (1674-1722), third Earl of Sunderland s collection (e.g., BL IB30218). His collection comprised  some 20,000 printed books: it was particularly strong in incunabula  , in Bibles, in first editions of the classics and Continental literature of the C15 and C16. A small portion of the volumes were bound in morocco, the bulk in calf  (de Ricci, 38). The description of this copy is remarkably similar to that of the copy sold as lot 1694 at the 'Bibliotheca Sunderlandiana' sale in 1881.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOETHIUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820349923663,"sku":"L3390","price":27500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-2_71489068-b96e-48ac-beb5-c2e22c24960f.jpg?v=1781794800"},{"product_id":"tertullian-1","title":"TERTULLIAN.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good, clean, well-margined copy of this handsome editio princeps  the first impression of the entire works of Tertullian  (Schoenman, 15), edited by the humanist reformer Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547).  The typographical execution of the volume is worthy of the press from which it issued. It is a book of uncommon occurrence; and, as an editio princeps, it should have a place in all libraries of any critical pretension  (Dibdin). The handsome   woodcut borders were produced by Ambrosius Holbein, Hans Franck and Hans Holbein the Younger, whom Froben had hired especially for his ambitious editions of the Church Fathers. Based on two mss from the monasteries of Peterlingen and Hirschau, edited by Beatus Rhenanus (1485-1547), this edition was revised using a third. (Graesse VI, 69).   Tertullian (155-240AD), of whom little is known, was born in Carthage and was probably a lawyer and priest. He became one of the earliest defenders of Christianity against pagan cults like Gnosticism; he was also the first Latin writer to use the word  trinity . This edition includes his sermons on patience, Christ s flesh, its resurrection, martyrs, penitence, wives and monogamy. It also features his  adversus  against the Jews and the Valentinians, as well as his most famous  Apologeticus , which discusses key theological questions like the nature of Christ and the devil, the kingdom of God, the Roman religion, and why pagan deities should not be considered  gods . One early annotator of this copy was especially interested in  Adversus Marcionem , against the errors of the Marcionites, a middle eastern cult often identified with a strand of the Gnostics. The annotator also glossed Beatus Rhenanus s commentary on  De Poenitentia , in relation to Protestant criticism of the traditional sacrament, and its theological and scriptural foundations, with observations on confession and penance. He also annotated the sermon on  the character of women , especially their being  the gate of the devil, the first to contravene divine law . In 1596, this copy was purchased in W√ºrzburg, Bavaria, by Erasmus Schaiblin. He was a doctor in theology from Steinbach am Wald, and canon at St Johannes in Haugis, in W√ºzburg. He left it to the Jesuit College of W√ºrzburg in 1613, whence it moved to the colleges of Bremen in 1654 and Minden in 1668.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TERTULLIAN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820350218575,"sku":"L3510","price":11500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3406-1.jpg?v=1781794799"},{"product_id":"paracelsus-theophrastus-with-sendivogius-michael","title":"PARACELSUS, Theophrastus [with] [SENDIVOGIUS, Michael]","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting sammelband of scarce German Paracelsiana. The Swiss Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493\/4-1541) used the pseudonym Paracelsus for most of his successful career as an alchemist, philosopher and physician. He was very influential in the development of empirical observation and the use of chemistry (embracing toxicology) in medical practice, though associated with Hermetic and occult philosophies. After his death, many spurious alchemical texts were attributed to him for marketing purposes and printed individually or in collections, as here. Hence their complex bibliographical history and his increasing reputation as a magician. ‘De lapide’ gathers three treatises connected with the philosopher’s stone, with references to the false ‘metalworkers’ or ‘cacomedici’, i.e., physicians and alchemists who err in theory and practice. ‘De lapide medicinali’ is concerned with the medical properties of the philosopher’s stone as ‘the perfect balm’, its nature (‘Electrum’), preparation and use. ‘Tinctura physicarum’ and ‘Tinctura planetarum’ include references to the Tabula Smaragdina, reputed to contain the Hermetic secrets of the prima materia, and discuss metal transmutations, the alchemy of the body and the retention of planetary influence. The second work—‘Schreiben’—comprises two treatises. ‘Liber vexationum’ discusses bodily ailments and treatments based on transmutation, including the therapeutic properties of sulphur and mercury, as well as gems. ‘Thesaurus alchemistarum’ includes, among many, a hair-raising transmutation involving corrosive aqua fortis, and very explosive saltpetre and ammonium salts. The third work is attributed to the Polish alchemist and pioneer chemist Sendivogius (Michał Sedziwój, 1566-1636). It focuses on the philosopher’s stone, its properties and making.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early annotators of this copy were two German alchemists. The C16 one devised a system associating specific ink colours with alchemical signs for metals, better to understand his own underlining, according to a ‘legenda’ he wrote at the beginning of ‘Liber vexationum’. Though not always consistent, yellow was for gold and red for mercury. He was also interested in the medical virtues of gems. The C17 annotator copied a few obscure alchemical poems—a much-used didactic genre in early modern Germany—one by the Lutheran theologian and mystic Johann Arndt (1555-1621). He glossed passages on the philosopher’s stone and Electrum with quotations from ‘Rosarium Philosophorum’ and Arnaldus de Villa Nova, highlighted lines on spagyric chemistry and ‘vulgar’ (base) metals, and glossed Hermes Trismegistus as ‘father of the wise’. He was also interested in astrological questions, and underlined passages in ‘Tinctura Planetarum’. He drew a diagram summarising the four elements, the basic chemical elements and the resulting tincture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PARACELSUS, Theophrastus [with] [SENDIVOGIUS, Michael]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820353331535,"sku":"L3509","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-49.jpg?v=1781793815"},{"product_id":"neotechnus-henricus","title":"[NEOTECHNUS, Henricus].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of this rare collection of six prognostic texts from different authors, edited and commented by the otherwise unknown Henricus Neotechnus,  medicus physicus  (doctor and physician) from Naumburg, Saxony. This is the second edition, the first 1613. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In this work, Neotechnus gathered a series of texts containing prophecies that were written in Latin and German during the XVI century. In particular, as specified in the title, the prognostications are concerned with  the luck and misfortunes of the high potentates of the (Holy) Roman Empire, the Turks and the Pope . Throughout the volume, Neotechnus frequently includes his own comments and additions to the works of the authors that he quotes, entitling his paragraphs with  Additio H.N.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first section contains the predictions of Johann Carion (1499-1537), court astrologer of Joachim I of Brandeburg and author of various prognostications based on the observation of the planets. His works were popular among the Lutheran circle of Melanchthon and he is famous for having predicted the Protestant Reformation, as well as various apocalyptic events. The second section includes an extract from the prophecies of Jacob Hartmann von Durlach, dated 1538. The third is concerned with a curious text entitled  Prophecy and warning concerning Germany and the House of Saxony, written 300 years ago, found in the library of Nuremberg and sent by Veit Dietrich [German theologian, 1506-1549] to Philip Melanchthon . The fourth section is the largest and most important, as it comprises the famous  Prognosticon Theophrasti Paracelsi . Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), commonly known as Paracelsus, was a renowned Swiss physician, alchemist and theologian. This is a collection of 32 cryptic and allegorical prophecies extracted from his works on astrology and divination. Notably, in the pages of the  Prognosticon , Paracelsus predicted a series of events which have been later associated with the Thirty Years  War (1618-1648), contemporary to the time in which Neotechnus was writing. The fifth and sixth sections contain selected predictions by the Italian Antonio Torquato (or Arcoato, end of the XV century) concerning the Turks, and by an anonymous  Mahometic priest  concerning the Turkish Sultan Amurath I. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The ex libris reads  I come from the library of David Tricenarius .  Tricenarius , rather than a surname, can be interpreted as an indication of age, meaning  thirty years old  or  in his thirties .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[NEOTECHNUS, Henricus].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643670863,"sku":"L3794","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-5-copy.jpg?v=1781793743"},{"product_id":"santa-sofia-marsilio-santa-sofia-galeazzo-parisiensis-richardus-de-gradi-antonio-and-barzizza-cristoforo","title":"SANTA SOFIA, Marsilio, SANTA SOFIA, Galeazzo, PARISIENSIS, Richardus, DE GRADI, Antonio and BARZIZZA, Cristoforo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of this rare collection of treatises on fevers, their causes and treatment, one in its FIRST EDITION. This is the second and enlarged edition of the collection, by Michel de Capella (first 1514). The decoration of the fine contemporary Italian binding   elegant and simple, with a single gilt rule border, delicate blind lines and  aldine  leaves to corners   is typical of the Venetian bindings of the period (see De Marinis II, pl. cccxxxiii). In particular, the style is close to Aldine bindings made by Andrea di Lorenzo, or  Mendoza Binder  (Venice, c. 1518-1555), and a similar example with black edges is recorded by Davis (The Henry Davis Gift n. 261). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first two essays are by members of the renowned family of physicians  de Santa Sofia , of Padua. Marsilio (c. 1338-1405), was the most illustrious: after graduating, he taught logic and medicine in Padua from 1367 to 1381; later, he became physician to Gian Galeazzo Visconti, first duke of Milan. He dedicated his life to teaching and writing medical commentaries. His  De febribus , first published in 1507, deals with all the symptoms of fever and how to treat them, then presents a series of different types of fever, including tertian and quartan, and the  febris pestilentialis , a term which often referred to plague. Interestingly, Marsilio worked in Venice in 1393, when an episode of plague broke out in the city. Galeazzo (d. 1427) was Marsilio s nephew, who, after teaching medicine in Padova and Bologna, moved to Vienna as physician to Albert IV, duke of Austria. His treatise on fevers (first ed. 1514) is in two parts, the first concerns fever in general, how to treat acute fever, and it presents a series of  regimina , or therapies to cure various symptoms; the second deals with the different fevers, including  febris pestilentialis ,  febris colericis  and  febris flegmatice . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The third treatise in the collection by Richardus Parisiensis, specifically focuses on fever s symptoms (signa). The author of the fourth treatise is Antonio de Gradi (fl.1458), a Milanese doctor mostly known for this particular essay on fevers. The last work, printed here for the first time, is by Cristoforo Barzizza (d. c. 1445). A native of Bergamo, he was a distinguished physician and a colleague of Galeazzo de Santa Sofia at the University of Padua. His  de intentionibus habendis in omni febre  (here) considers synochal, syncopal, pestilential, quartan, quintan fevers, but also small pox and measles. Compared to the others, Barzizza devotes less attention to describing the symptoms of the illness and focuses more on treatment and cure. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The manuscript ex libris most likely belongs to the Croatian physician and writer Ivan August Kazna_i_ (1817-1883), director of the Dubrovnik hospital for twenty years, literary critic and bibliographer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SANTA SOFIA, Marsilio, SANTA SOFIA, Galeazzo, PARISIENSIS, Richardus, DE GRADI, Antonio and BARZIZZA, Cristoforo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859644522831,"sku":"L3693","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8993.jpg?v=1781793741"},{"product_id":"camerarius-joachim","title":"CAMERARIUS, Joachim","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst editions of Camerarius  important commentaries on Books I and II of the Iliad. These are regarded as the first attempt to write a commentary on Homer in the early modern period. Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574) was German classical scholar who taught Latin and Greek at Nuremberg and reorganised the Universities of Tubingen and Leipzig. A close friend of Melanchthon, Camerarius helped the reformer to draft the Augsburg Confession.  Camerarius published in Strasbourg (1538) an extensive commentary on book one of the Iliad followed in 1540 by a commentary on book two. Both commentaries contained the Greek original accompanied by a Latin hexameter translation. These slim volumes were meant for instruction, with prefaces exhorting readers to the study of Homer. The translation ( ) was clearly intended as an aid for students wading through the difficult text. These commentaries, it has been observed, were meant for the education of young students.  (Ben-Tov) The two works are structured in a similar way: after a dedication, they both contain a preface, then a detailed commentary   this comprises a summary of the books, a grammatical and syntactical analysis of the text with references to ancient authors and antiquarian details   and finally the Greek text followed by Camerarius  translation. The preface to Book I is particularly interesting, featuring a brief biography of Homer, an explanation of the Iliad s title, a list of its contents and of ancient commentators. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n   \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A Latin translation of the first 182 verses of the Iliad in Greek (at pages 109-114, titled  Iliadis Homeri Compositio ) was here annotated in manuscript by an early owner   possibly a member of Jesuit collegium of Cologne   in the outer margin. This manuscript translation corresponds to one by the humanist Sebastien Castellion, first printed in 1561. The Latin annotation to the front fly reads records a legend, often recounted by ancient authors, concerning the death of the Emperor Domitian. It reads:  Cornix commendavit his graecis verbis mortem crudelissimi imperatori Domitiani: ____ ≈ì√Ñ____ _____  and it can be translated as  A crow commended the death of the cruellest Emperor Domitian with these Greek verses: all will be well . The ms. inscription  Emptus 2 batz  on the title page means  bought for two Batzen . The Batzen was a southern German and Swiss coin, in use in the mid 16.th. century: it is likely that these volumes were purchased in around Strasbourg soon after printing, and probably unbound. At this time, one loaf of bread cost around 4 pfennig (0.25 Batzen). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n   \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Franz Joseph Cremer (1767-1841) was a German professor at the D√ºsseldorf Lyceum, who remarkably taught the basis of Latin and Greek to the famous Romantic poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). Unfortunately, it appears that he was dismissed for incompetence in 1813. Franz de Blois was a German surgeon and obstetrician (1799-1841) of Huckeswagen, who obtained his diploma at Bonn in 1823. The identity of  Ludwig D√∂rsten  and  C. Ferd. Graff , could not be identified with certainty. Curiously, Ludwig D√∂rsten is the name of a character in  Das Horn von Wanza  (1881), by the German novelist Wilhelm Raabe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CAMERARIUS, Joachim","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859650945359,"sku":"L3953","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3953-5.jpg?v=1781793721"},{"product_id":"fonte-johannes-da","title":"FONTE, Johannes da.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Rare incunable edition of this popular Medieval anthology, first printed c. 1480.  Auctoritates aristotelis  (also known as  Parvi Flores ) is a florilegium, that is a compendium of important extracts (auctoritates = authoritative passages) from other works   in this case, classical and medieval philosophical treatises. It was composed between 1267 and 1325 by Johannes de Fonte (fl. 1300), lector of theology at the Franciscan convent of Montpellier. This compilation, which enjoyed great success in Germany, was used for education in universities and monasteries. It contains excerpts from Aristotle and sayings drawn from Plato, Porphyry, Seneca, Apuleius and Boethius. The first section focuses on logical works, the second is concerned with natural philosophy, metaphysics and ethics. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . .A very interesting and rather unusual feature of this volume is that the rubricator, who coloured the title page, decorated all the initials and provided useful paragraph marks, also added brief annotations in red ink. These marginalia mostly consist in single words, such as  nota  or  considera , pointing the attention to key passages underlined. This indicates the decorator was an interested reader with a good understanding of the text. At the end, the colophon is ornamented with a nice red-ink frame, below are the initials  N.S: , probably those of the reader-rubricator.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . .The manuscript inscription  oro otto releuer no(n) reueler oro otto  on the title page in black and red ink in two different hands, is a very curious and rare palindrome (the first two words should be inverted). Interestingly, we were able to find only three other occurrences of this sentence, and all three are manuscript inscriptions appearing on 15.th. century codexes that belonged to Otto Ebner (C. Vindobonensis palatinus 3332, C. Latinus Monacensis 18513b, 6948). Ebner (fl. 1453-1484, d. after 1491) was chaplain at the Heilig-Geist-Spital in Munich, writer, and owner of a small library. On a codex he inscribed:  Otto oro relever, non reveler oro Otto, Otto tenet mappam madidam mappam tenet Otto .  It appears that he enjoyed palindromes containing his name   which is also a palindrome   and used to write them on his books. It is highly probable that volume also belonged to him. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . .From the important library of the Dutch businessman and book collector Joost R. Ritman (b. 1941), Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FONTE, Johannes da.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859652223311,"sku":"L3853","price":8500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3311.jpg?v=1781793721"},{"product_id":"legh-gerard-1","title":"LEGH, Gerard.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A fine copy of Legh s The Accedens of Armory, first published in 1562 a year before his death. This is the third edition, all  by the same printer with spaces mainly to spacing and layout. After his education, funded by Robert Wroth of Durants in Enfield, Middlesex; Legh was apprenticed as a draper under his father and became a member of the Drapers  Company. He was later distanced from the association after taking the side of the government over the city in an unknown matter, and returned to scholarship to write this work.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The text details the colours, shapes, and figures found in heraldry with in-depth descriptions of their appearance as well as illustrative woodcuts. Legh provides historical and symbolic context, noting the heraldic imagery attributed to various antique and classical figures or groups, such as the shield of Perseus and the symbols of Troy. He also notes the heraldic colours and symbols associated with personal qualities such as royalty, valour, loyalty, or hospitality. Biblical anecdotes or historical figures are provided to explain much of the history and symbolism associated with particular elements of a shield.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Described as the most popular heraldic work of the later 16.th. century, Legh uses the form of two avatars of the author, Gerarde the Herehaught and Legh the Caligat Knight, discussing the art of heraldry. Much of the discussion is theoretical and oblique to avoid transgressing the official privileges of the College of Arms. Legh provides detail on elements that might be unknown to the newcomer such as an explanation of the colours used, and lays out the detailing and illustration of shield by appearance to make them easier to describe and navigate. The preface opens:  To the honorable assembly of gentlemen in the Innes of Court and Chauncery, Gerard Legh vvisheth loialtie . A second is addressed to the reader by Richard Argall of the Inner Temple, Richard was the father of Samuel Argall, the naval officer and adventurer who was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England to Virginia. He is best known as the captain who brought Pocahontas to the British, having abducted her from her father, the Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The manuscript notes on ff. 59v-60r describe specific armorials similar to those in the text\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LEGH, Gerard.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859654189391,"sku":"L3978","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Accedens-1.jpg?v=1781793716"},{"product_id":"pomponius-mela-iulius-solinus-vibius-sequester-publius-victor-and-dionisius-periegetes","title":"POMPONIUS MELA, IULIUS SOLINUS, VIBIUS SEQUESTER, PUBLIUS VICTOR and DIONISIUS PERIEGETES.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Attractive copy of this Aldine collection of classical works on geography, in a lovely, very well-preserved contemporary northern-Italian binding. The arabesque ornaments on the covers of the volume, and their variations, were predominantly used in Venice at the beginning of the 16.th. century (See Needham 35; De Marinis 1797bis, 1921), but they also appear on Milanese bindings (combined with ropework border: see Davis III, 244; bound for Jean Grolier: Needham 41). Ropework decorations are typical of northern Italy, but the ornate border on this binding is a particularly intricate and fine example..  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Pomponius Mela (d. c. 45) was the first Roman geographer and his  De situs orbis  is the earliest preserved treatise on geography in Latin.  Though the work was largely a borrowing from Greek sources ( ), it was unique among the ancient geographies in that it divided the Earth, which Mela placed at the centre of the universe, into five zones: a northern frigid zone, a northern temperate zone, a torrid zone, a southern temperate zone, and a southern frigid zone.  (Encyclopedia Britannica). The treatise focuses on the known world, outlining a journey across North Africa, Asia and finally Europe. The contemporary marginalia to this work are interesting: a reader corrected the spelling of several geographical names and annotated different readings on the basis of other sources such as Strabo and Ptolemy.  Polihistor  is by the grammarian Julius Solinus (c. 210-258). Also known as  De mirabilibus mundi ,  On the wonders of the world , this is an influential compilation   largely drawing from Mela, Pliny and Suetonius   of the most curious facts concerning the peoples, regions, plants and animals of the world, beginning from Rome and moving on to the Mediterranean, northern Africa, Near East and India. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Itinerarium Antonini , by an unknown author, can be described as a  road map  of the Roman Empire in the III century AD, containing a register of all the stations along the major roads and their distances. This is followed by Vibius Sequester s alphabetical list of geographical names mentioned by Latin poets (Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Silius Italicus), comprising rivers, springs, lakes, forests, marshes, mountains and peoples.  De regionibus Urbis Romae  is a brief list of all the important buildings, streets and bridges that can be found in different areas of Rome, spuriously attributed to a fictitious Publius Victor. Last in the collection is a Latin verse translation of Dionysius Periegetes   Description of the world , by the grammarian Priscian. This collection was edited Aldus  brother-in-law, Gian Francesco Torresani d Asola (c. 1498-1558).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"POMPONIUS MELA, IULIUS SOLINUS, VIBIUS SEQUESTER, PUBLIUS VICTOR and DIONISIUS PERIEGETES.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859654484303,"sku":"L3575c","price":11000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3575c-1.jpg?v=1781793714"},{"product_id":"estienne-henri-6","title":"ESTIENNE, Henri.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this pocket collection of  sententiae  and proverbs from the Greek and Latin comic authors, edited by Henri Estienne. The volume is in a lovely contemporary painted strapwork binding, probably from a Lyonese or Parisian workshop, the principal sources of production of these charming bindings around the mid 16.th. century. Although the technical procedure of gilding and painting had been developed in Italy, similar  relieures ‚àö‚Ć la cire  with coloured or uncoloured geometrical interlacings quickly came to typify the elegance of the French Renaissance binders. Enamelled onlays and fine gilt borders were particularly appreciated by the grandest patrons of the day - Grolier, Henry II, Catherine de Medici - and realised only by a handful of skilled  doreurs sur cire . The main feature of these bindings is that each one is unique: this is a simple and elegant example, with a peculiar three dots pattern filling in the spaces of the design instead of the more common dense single dots pattern. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Comicorum Graecorum Sententiae  is an entertaining anthology of Greek aphorisms ( sententiae  in Laitn,  gnomai  in Greek), selected, translated and commented on by Henri Estienne. This is one of Estienne s tiniest books, defined  pusillus  (i.e. very little) in the dedication to the Duke of Bavaria. It begins with a short introductory treatise by Estienne on aphorisms, outlining what they are and how to select them. Then, a few chapters are dedicated to Greek New Comedy playwrights in alphabetical order (e.g. Apollodorus, Antiphanes, Diphilus, Menander, etc), containing a list of their  sententiae  with a Latin translation and a brief explanation. Another series of chapters contains aphorisms, mainly from Menander, organised by subject, e.g. on  the future ,  friends ,  drunkenness ,  luck ,  wealth ,  anger ,  laughter . At the end, a separate section not indicated in the title page contains a similar collection derived from Latin authors (including Naevius, Ennius, Terence, Plautus etc.), including a selection of Publius Syrus  sententiae with a commentary by Erasmus.  These sorts of compilations were very popular in their day, and Henri Estienne may have issued them as  bread-and-butter  publications, in order to raise the capital (which he had lost with the patronage of Fugger) necessary to meet the printing and publication costs of his magnum opus now nearing completion: the Thesaurus Graecae Linguae  (Schreiber).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Interestingly, several pages were deliberately left blank to allow for the reader s notes: in this copy, the last blank leaf is annotated in a contemporary hand, and it contains an index of contents from page 190 to 271.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ESTIENNE, Henri.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859655926095,"sku":"L3877","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4176-copy.jpg?v=1781793712"},{"product_id":"agricola-johannes","title":"AGRICOLA, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Carefully used copies, charmingly bound and extensively annotated, of the first and second part of this important early collection of German proverbs    one of the major literary documents of the Reformation  (Gilman, p.78). The first part   here in one of 5 first editions published in 1529 (priority not established)   comprises 300 proverbs; the second work, first published here, has another 450. In these two works, Johannes Agricola (1494-1566), a German Protestant Reformer acquainted with Luther, combined the medieval tradition of vernacular proverbs with Erasmus s humanist Latin  Adagia . At the same time, he  polemized  the content and gave it a different form   using the genre of the moralizing exemplum - so as to transmit Reformed ideas (Gilman, p.78). Indeed, each numbered proverb, accompanied by a Latin or Greek version, is followed by a short explanation in German, presented as a traditional harmless commentary with moral intent, but actually imbued with Reformation and nationalistic polemics, including biographical details of the early Reformers and observations on contemporary German economics and politics.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The extensive annotations in this copy provide stellar evidence of ways in which contemporary Reformed readers engaged with Agricola. E.g., the annotator glossed  This is what false tongues and teachers have done  with  Thomas M√ºntzer , an early Reformer who eventually rejected Luther s ideas. He highlighted a passage on Luther s difficult position in 1518, glossing it with a reference to his work (1520) on the  Captivitas Baylonica  of the Roman Church. Other episodes from Luther s career are glossed with a date and  M L . He was interested in Agricola s account of the fortunes and activities of the merchant Jakob Fugger,  who pushed trade so hard like nobody in living memory , and who obtained with a bribe a monopoly over Portuguese spices (glossed with  Monopolia p[ro]hibita  by our annotator). Clearly interested in trade, he glossed with  Emporia Germanica  a passage on commercial centres, i.e., Antwerp, Frankfurt and Leipzig. He also marked references to sources, e.g., Erasmus and Huss, and added verse in German from his own personal knowledge. The slightly later annotators were more interested in the proverbs per se.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AGRICOLA, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859656253775,"sku":"L3949","price":5950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3949-6.jpg?v=1781793711"},{"product_id":"catholic-church-4","title":"[CATHOLIC CHURCH].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good, unsophisticated copy ‚Äì in an attractive, strictly contemporary binding and with early ms. annotations ‚Äì of this most successful Catholic martyrology. This was the last edition printed before the Reformation. Used intensively for the writing of sermons, it is infrequently found in such well-preserved, genuine state. This copy specifies a contemporary price of 3 florins for the book, probably already bound, as the price is written on the ffep, and a later price of 17 florins, dated 1740, which provides interesting evidence for the history of book prices.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFirst published in Basle in 1474, this anonymous compilation, like the ‚ÄòLegenda aurea‚Äô, brought together the lives of the Apostles as well as saints, martyrs, confessors and virgins from late antiquity and (fewer) from the early middle ages. Each section includes short accounts on the life, death and miracles of each exemplary figure, with a selection from saints‚Äô days in the Breviarium Romanum (Kalendae, Idus, Nonae). The choice provides clues as to the original authorship and intended readership: e.g., Wenceslas (10th century), mostly venerated in Bohemia and England, embodied political resistance against the Holy Roman Empire and was especially dear to C15 and C16 Hussites; Winibald (8th century) was a German monk and missionary of English origin, whose relics were donated to Henry VII of England in 1492.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early C16 Germanic annotator of this copy, a cleric and preacher, copied down an abridged version of the ‚Äòlectio‚Äô for Christmas Eve as well as the Vulgate text of Isaiah 2-7, with a marginal note reminding him to highlight the legend of St Bernard. The Isaiah excerpt was intended for a ‚Äòlectio capitularis‚Äô ‚Äì a sermon delivered at a ‚ÄòCapitul-Kirche‚Äô, a collegiate church, generally a cathedral. In this case, the annotator specified that the place of the sermon was a church dedicated to St Paul. The late C17 annotator, the unidentified Joannes Petrus H√∂rner, was probably an apostolic legate; he noted an episode from the life of St John Chrysostom. The C18 annotator, Joannes Jacobus Franciscus, Count of Eltz-Kempenich, was a theology student at Strasbourg in 1764 and canon at Mainz and Trier, like his famous relative Philipp Karl von Eltz-Kempenich (d.1743), Archbishop-Elector of Mainz. He glossed two passages with references to Charlemagne and Pipin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[CATHOLIC CHURCH].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859656352079,"sku":"L3633","price":2850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3633-6.jpg?v=1781793710"},{"product_id":"zonaras-joannes-haeduus-joannes-quintinus-ed-with-gratianus","title":"ZONARAS, Joannes; HAEDUUS, Joannes Quintinus, ed. [with] GRATIANUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A most interesting combination of very good copies, handsomely printed with wide margins, of two major works on the historic ecclesiastical regulations on the conduct and duties of the clergy. Attributed to Joannes Zonaras (fl. 12thC), a Byzantine historian and theologian,  Canones Apostolorum  reproduces, in Greek and Latin, the 85 rules of the early Christian Church, allegedly authorised by the Apostles, as well as those approved by the acknowledged ecclesiastical councils, each followed by a short explanation. First published in Mainz in 1525, in the context of anti-Lutheran debates, they are concerned with the duties and countenance of bishops, presbyters and deacons (e.g., concubinage, demeanour during sacraments, food and drink), the administration of religious life and the sacraments. The editor, the French canonist Johannes Quintinus Haeduus (d.1561), provides in the preface a most interesting description of the original Greek ms in the Royal Library reproduced here for the first time:  Magnificent is the very elegant script, written on splendid paper. The royal codex is bound.  The second work, here in the very scarce second edition (after that of 1556), is a compendium on the same subject drawn from the  Decretum  by the C12 jurist Gratian, only superseded as a canon law authority by Gregory IX s  Decretales  (1324). Edited by Haeduus, it includes excerpts from 25  distinctiones , alternating scriptural and patristic passages, and explanations from Part I of the  Decretum . Numerous regulations concern concubinage and the clergy s professional and personal relationship with young women. It is adds to the  Canones Apostolorum  and those of the following synods also references to Augustine, Jerome, and the writings of several popes.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .In the late C16, this sammelband was in the library of Antoine Roy, from Saint-R émy-sur-Creuse, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, later rector of the nearby small parish of Grand-Pressigny. He was a  vocal  reader in that at times he used printed initials as a frame or as part of his crimson red signature, which appears a dozen times. Most probably in his hand is the long note at rear, concerning  Distinctio XXX , which he also glossed at margins. He added passages absent in the second work concerning the veneration of the images and relics of saints and martyrs, and the heretics who abhor it, from Epiphanius to (implicitly) the more recent Protestants.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ZONARAS, Joannes; HAEDUUS, Joannes Quintinus, ed. [with] GRATIANUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859658875215,"sku":"L3859b","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3859b-3.jpg?v=1781793704"},{"product_id":"bible-36","title":"[BIBLE].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good, interesting copy of this lavishly illustrated bible, in handsome contemporary binding and with profuse C16 annotations. It was produced by the Piedmontese Jacques Sacon (d.1528\/30), printer in Lyon since 1498, at the expense of the German Anton II Koberger. Overall, Koberger commissioned to Sacon 28 editions of mainly theological works. The original handsome t-p woodcut was made by D√ºrer s pupil, Hans Springinklee (c.1490-1540), hired by Koberger in 1516. The large woodcuts with the six days of the Creation (a design reprised from C15 Venetian bibles) and the nativity, and the 123 smaller biblical scenes, were produced by local artists. First printed in 1512, this third edition, with revisions by Alberto Castellano and the addition of sidenotes and concordances, was edited by Johannes de Gradibus, a Milanese jurist, canonist and theologian; it was on the 1521 edition that Luther based his German translation of the Vulgate (Chalvin,  Jacques Sacon , 43). The contemporary annotator, probably a German friar, was a learned theologian and a serious student of the Scriptures, adding short explanations to passages or words. He also wrote a long paragraph the death of the Carthusian Martyrs from the London Charterhouse, imprisoned and executed by Henry VIII in 1535-37. He added four references to Lutheranism, in relation to Old Testament passages. In 1 Kings (1 Samuel), he identified Lutherans with Jonathan, who eats the honey in the woods, whereas his father Saul had made all his soldiers take an oath against eating before the end of the battle. In Judith (considered apocryphal by Protestants), he labelled  against Lutherans  the approval of fasting (not viewed by them as compulsory at Lent, like other forms of penitence), undertaken by the Israelites to pray God to protect them against the attack of the Assyrians. (Another reference to fasting was highlighted in Esther.) The annotator also noted, on the margins of the festivities for Judith s victory, the words  against Lutherans on holy festivities , which they had reduced in number. He wrote down numerous marginalia quoting from Gregorius Magnus, Chrysostom, St Jerome (also on the evils of wine drinking), Plato, Seneca, Socrates and Theophrastus (on their behaviour towards their wives), Polydore Virgil (from his  De invenctoribus rerum ), Origen, Cyprian, St Ambrose, Bede, Denis the Carthusian and Haymo\/Pseudo-Primasius (a commentary to the Epistles to the Jews). He was familiar with Greek as he traced the etymology of  apocryphus , which he wrote in Greek letters. In Genesis, he glossed God s gift of language ( vernaculum ) to Adam and Eve as  Vernaculus is what is born in our own homelands . He wrote a note on Arcturus and Orion, drawing astronomical information from Placus s  Lexicon Biblicon  (1543), as well as information on plants and illnesses (e.g., cholera) mentioned in the text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[BIBLE].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859664576847,"sku":"L3278","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3278-1.jpg?v=1781793695"},{"product_id":"erasmus-with-erasmus-with-solinus-and-wildenberg-hyeronimus","title":"ERASMUS. [with] ERASMUS. [with] SOLINUS. [and] WILDENBERG, Hyeronimus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good, unsophisticated copies of four works, in three scarce and one incunabular edition, extensively annotated by students from the time of the Reformation and for a few decades. The binding decoration points to southern Germany, and the latest recorded owner, Hannibal Schmid von Wellenstein (1601-73) was Prince of F√ºssen, in Bavaria, the state where this sammelband appears to have remained at least until the C19. A marginal gloss says  1528 post pascha , i.e., 1528 Second Sunday after Easter. .  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Pupils in early modern Germany were under no formal obligation to stay at one school and follow a particular programme of study through from beginning to end, [...] pupils picked and chose from the offer of early modern schools. Apart from the differences in tuition apparent from curricula, the textbooks used also differed widely from one school to the next, allowing teachers to employ quite different teaching methods. This was even more so the case as far as private tuition was concerned (often taught by the schoolteachers themselves and without which it was very difficult at some institutions to pass the end-of-year exam)  (Ross, pp. 316, 328). The present copy may have been a  Latin  (or grammar) school library s copy, used by different students in the course of several decades; or it may have been in the library of the Princes of F√ºssen - which would explain the sudden presence of a Venetian incunable among cheap student editions - and used by generations of Wellenstein boys under the supervision of a private tutor. All annotators mostly followed the same programme, including Book I of  De copia verborum ,  Querela pacis  and  Encomium matrimonii ; a later annotator slaved over Solinus s work. Erasmus was  the most influential textbook writer in the C16  (Chomarat). This sammelband includes his widely-read  De copia verborum , first published in 1512 and suggesting textual embellishment based on tropes and rhetorical figures, as well as  Querela Pacis , a complaint of personified Peace, and three orations on death, marriage and the medical profession. Sold and printed separately, these last four were here published together probably following the most common school curricula. Solinus s  De mirabilibus mundi  - a compendium of the ancient wonders of the world   was a favourite for teaching, with a chapter on the peoples of remote countries. Hieronymus Wildenberg s (fl. C16) dictionary of synonyms was the perfect instrument for schoolboys, providing half a dozen Latin synonyms for each German word.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy sheds light on how different C16 students tackled the same passages, in the course of a couple of decades. The earliest annotator provided glosses or short summaries, interlinear Latin paraphrases, as well as reference to Quintilian, Sallust, Ovid and Cicero, which he was likely studying at the time. He noted the occasional Greek word with its Latin meaning. He was especially interested in grammar, syntax and rhetoric, e.g., the four types of  consolatio , the interpretation of Homeric or Virgilian passages (e.g., on Ulysses, Circes s poisons). He glossed  Querela Pacis ,  De morte  and  De matrimonium  extensively, also with what may be a rigmarole on Latin names for animals:  Elephanti oves \/ Boves et granchi , etc. Two other contemporary annotators, writing in clear cursive, focused on Book I of  De copia verborum , using previous annotations as guidelines, and adding to them, with a focus on grammar and rhetoric (e.g., what is an  argumentum ). One added  Papista papisticus Lutheranum  to one margin. A third, who signed a gloss  1528 , also wrote in red ink and is probably responsible for the careful rubrication and underlining of previous annotations   an interesting instance of how students interacted with their predecessors  work. He slaved over Erasmus s list of names and related adjectives used for  comparatio , with detailed cross-references to Homer, Euripides, Pliny, Plato, and others. The c.mid-C16 hand of the Solinus annotator appears nowhere else. The rubrication and red underlining in the same ink as the notes make us wonder whether this was somehow part of the school exercise, to make the text clearer. He added occasional interlinear paraphrases, and appears to have been as interested in the chapter on the antiquities of Rome as that on menstruation and human birth, and on the history of Italy. A unique sammelband.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ERASMUS. [with] ERASMUS. [with] SOLINUS. [and] WILDENBERG, Hyeronimus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859668672847,"sku":"L4116","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4116-1.jpg?v=1781793681"},{"product_id":"pindar-1","title":"PINDAR.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good and fascinating copy of the important editio princeps of Pindar’s victory odes, with contemporary annotations in Greek. This is the basis for most subsequent editions, elegantly printed with a larger Greek type than that usually employed by Aldus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePindar (c. 518-438 BC), a native of Thebes, was one of the greatest Greek lyric poets. Highly regarded in antiquity, he was defined by Quintilian and Horace as ‘inimitable for the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence’. Pindar composed forty-four victory songs to be performed by a choir during the formal celebrations at the four panhellenic athletic festivals. These are here published for the first time, grouped into four books named after the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games – held respectively at Olympia, Delphi, Corinth and Nemea. This edition, dedicated by Aldus to his friend and poet Andrea Navagero (1483-1529), also includes the 1dition princeps of Lycophron’s poem ‘Alexandra’ and the second editions of the hymns of Callimachus (first 1494) and of Dionysius’ geographical treatise ‘De situ Orbis’ (first 1512).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe earliest annotation is the monogram ‘ΦΚ’, composed of the two Greek letters ‘F” and ‘K’, which usually stands for the name ‘Phocas’. The cross in between the two letters presumably indicates a connection with a church or a religious order, and it is possible that the monogram belonged to a priest. In Venice, St. Phocas was venerated as patron saint of sailors and he is portrayed in a famous 13th century mosaic in the atrium of St. Mark’s Church. ‘San Foca’ is also a small town located not far from Venice which takes its name from the saint, and a priest and traveller ‘Giovanni da San Foca’, a native of this town, is known for having written a journal of his journey from Udine to Venice in 1536. The volume was then owned by Bartholomeus and Gregorius de Paduanis, most likely two members of the De Padovani family of Brescia, a noble family of Venetian origins. Bartolomeo de Padovanis was a physician and author of many works who died in 1560, while Gregorio was an abbot and prior of the monastery of St. Eufemia della Fonte. “Carolus Scarella” may be the erudite Italian priest and poet Carlo Scarella, also native of Brescia (1705-1769).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe ms. inscriptions on the flyleaves of the volume, in different neat and calligraphic hands, contain erudite quotations from different authors concerning Christian faith and the achievement of knowledge, wisdom and virtue. Noteworthy are the Greek verses by the Italian humanist Politianus (1454-1494), composed and published only 15 years before, which read: ‘For the powerful jaws of time devour all other things, but wisdom alone is, for us, without decay”. A thought-provoking aphorism of Musonius, defined ‘wise’, is copied below: ‘If you perform an honourable action with labour, the labour is soon over, but the honour remains; if you perform a dishonourable action with pleasure, the pleasure soon goes away, and the dishonour remains”. Hesiod’s famous verses concern the path to virtue, which is long and steep at the beginning, then easy to walk once one reaches its summit. The marginalia to Pindarus’ Greek text include erudite explanations of obscure poetic images and clarifications on difficult aspects of the language, for example the poet’s use of the Doric dialect.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PINDAR","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868194087247,"sku":"L3885","price":10500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3885-2.jpg?v=1781793679"},{"product_id":"lopez-de-palacios-rubios-joannes","title":"LOPEZ DE PALACIOS RUBIOS, Joannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A good copy of the first and only edition of this important commentary on the  Leyes de Toro  - a revolutionary set of laws for the Kingdom of Castile, some still recognized today. They were applied and retained way into the C19, as part of the legal systems of former Spanish colonies such as Louisiana, Texas and Trinidad. These 83 laws were debated in 1505 in the city of Toro, in Castile, and approved by a committee of major Spanish jurists, according to instructions left in the will of Queen Isabella, who wished to modernize the Castilian justice system. On this committee was Juan L‚àö‚â•pez de Palacios Rubios (1450-1524), trained at Salamanca and known as  El Doctor  for his canon law expertise. He famously wrote the  Requerimiento  (1513) - the declaration of the Spanish monarchy seizing of New World territories, which was read to the native populations to  inform  them of the conquerors  rights. The present work provides the text (in Castilian), followed by Rubios  commentary (in Latin), for each  ley de Toro , which joined three previous sets of laws: the Partidas and ordinance of Alcal‚àö¬∞ (1343), and the Royal Ordinance (1496). The  leyes de Toro  were introduced  to regulate the forms to be observed in making wills; to establish rules relative to testamentary successions, and to successions  ab intestato ; to fix the donations which a father or mother might make of a part of their estate to some of their children to the prejudice or others,   and the alimony due from the father to his illegitimate children  ( Early Laws , p.154). Rubios prepared a thorough alphabetical index listing the hundreds of questions discussed in his commentary, including alienation of goods, dozens of cases concerning inheritance by legitimate and illegitimate ( spurii ) children, the status of prematurely deceased heirs in the definition of family genealogy for the purpose of inheritance, clandestine marriage, Christian burial for the executed, and whether a father can revoke a donation. A scarce commentary, in a remarkably well-preserved copy. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOPEZ DE PALACIOS RUBIOS, Joannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868675809615,"sku":"L4085","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4085-2.jpg?v=1781793652"},{"product_id":"dionysius-periegetes-mela-pomponius-solinus-gaius-iulius-aethicus","title":"DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES; MELA, Pomponius; SOLINUS, Gaius Iulius; AETHICUS.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good, unsophisticated copy, in contemporary binding and with interesting early annotations, of this very handsome student collection of ancient geography textbooks and commentaries.  De situ orbis  by Dionysius Periegetes, he lived in Alexandria in the 2.nd. or 3.rd. century AD, was a popular geographical poem on the boundaries of the known world. Pomponius Mela s (1.st. cent. AD)  De situ orbis  described in prose the then-known world, dividing it into 5 zones, only two of which he deemed inhabitable. Solinus   De mirabilibus mundi  -a compendium of the ancient wonders of the world- was a favourite for teaching, especially the chapter on the peoples of remote countries. The collection also includes  scholia  (commentaries) by the humanists Morel and Papia, some concerning Aethicus   Cosmographia , now considered a medieval forgery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy was owned by a university student or scholar, who covered in dense ms annotations the margins of the first three chapters of Mela s  De situ  - on the four parts of the world, and the descriptions of Asia and Europe - adding a few blanks for further notes. The annotations are at times summaries of the text, but mostly provide personal observations and integral information. For instance, the annotator refers to the version of the text found in a  Codex Parisiensis et manuscriptus , most likely one of the many precious mss of classical works preserved at the Royal Library. He noted information about the author, and provided numerous additional information based on Pliny, Strabo, Ptolemy and other ancient authorities, with reference to specific peoples (e.g., Iberii) and places (e.g., Caspian Sea). Further occasional marginalia show his knowledge of other editions, e.g., by J. Vadianus, and his interest in the etymology of  Britannia , which our annotator glossed with an additional, quite obscure etymology, as  a name made of two Hebrew nouns, translated as  stanum  (tin) and  agrum  (field) in Latin. An interesting, unsophiticated copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES; MELA, Pomponius; SOLINUS, Gaius Iulius; AETHICUS.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868678889807,"sku":"L4215","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4277-copy.jpg?v=1781793645"},{"product_id":"cartwright-thomas-with-hester-john-trans-fioravanti-leonardo-with-levens-peter-and-langham-william","title":"CARTWRIGHT, Thomas.; with [HESTER, John, trans.; FIORAVANTI, Leonardo.]; with LEVENS, Peter.; and [LANGHAM, William.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very rare survival – a sammelband of four C16 English medical works, three in the first edition. Rebound in the early C18, most probably in Scotland, the book was still being used as a reference work by a series of (likely related) C18 physicians: Thomas, John, and James Milne. Although we have not traced their names in any of the four Scottish universities’ early student registers – which include variations such as Mille, Mill, Mylne, or Millne – James signed himself at Brora, on the north coast, the nearest university being Aberdeen. Several annotations include Scottish spelling, e.g., ‘marcat’ for market. In 1712-14, Thomas appears to have had this sammelband bound or rebound, with some works in already incomplete copies, and added blanks for annotations. It is also possible that he deliberately discarded (or disposed of) those parts of works which were not relevant to study or practice. He created a table of contents for Cartwright’s work, and filled several blanks with recipes drawn from books of secrets: to drain a swollen leg, treat the gut, etc. Most interesting is the section on ‘how to become invisible’, using heliotropium and a laurel leaf enclosed in a wolf’s tooth, possibly ultimately drawn from Copeland’s ‘Booke of Secrets of Albertus Magnus’ (1561), which also includes a recipe requiring the ‘matrix of a young frog’. Others include remedies for women who cannot conceive, against St Anthony’s fire (shingles), dropsy, how to help a woman deliver a still-born baby, against the falling sickness, jaundice, falling hair, and others. He was also probably using German sources, as he mentions the German name of spondilium and borrows the convention of ticking U to differentiate it from cursive N, typical of German fraktur handwriting. Thomas’ hand alternates with that of James Milne, who copied other remedies. They both copied two Scottish poems or songs, which we have not traced: ‘I did me to the marcat \/ To see what I could spy…’ and ‘The bee is wowndorous small \/ and naughtie in esteeme’, both with variations. At rear is a prayer for a family, from A. Dent’s ‘Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven’. Thomas also wrote of himself: ‘Thomas Millne is a Whigg’, then crossed-out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘A hospitall of the diseased’ is attributed to Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603), one of the leading Puritan preachers and master of Warwick’s Lord Leycester hospital from 1585. The preface, signed T.C., urges sick people to ‘delay no time, but with a final price buy a gem worth gold (this book, I mean)’, which provides recipes ‘as in a cunning Apothecary’s shop’.  This pocket manual is made of dozens of short sections, each devoted to a remedy: e.g., against the plague, ague, back pain, burns caused by gunpowder, scalding, eye conditions, for clearing the voice, toothache, etc. The (here fragmentary) ‘Short discours […] uppon chirurgerie’ is comprises ‘translations of extracts from several different works of the Bolognese physician Fioravanti, the first part (leaves 1-14) being chapters 1-23 (with some omissions) of his ‘Discorsi sopra la chirugia’, […] an appendix to his edition of the ‘Compendio di tutta la cirugia’ by P. and L. Rostini. The remainder was drawn from others of Fioravanti’s works, including ‘Tesoro della vita humana, and Capricci medicinali’ (Durling). It touches on a great variety of subjects, e.g., remedies for all captains and soldiers that travel either by water or by land’ for insomnia, jaundice, palsy, dropsy, and the measures to be observed by those who enter into any bath or drink water from a bath. The translator, John Hester (d.1593) contributed to the circulation of Paracelsian medicine in England. ‘A right profitable booke’ was written by Peter Levens (1552-87), a lexicographer trained at Oxford, and a ‘student of Phisicke and Surgery’. Structured as a book of secrets, it comprises dozens of short recipes for remedies head-to-foot, e.g., against headache, nose-bleeding, chipping of the lips, bleeding gums, for blood in urine, incontinence, sweeling of the knees, etc. ‘The garden of health’ (here fragmentary), by the obscure William Langham, is an alphabetic dictionary of the most important common medical herbs and plants, with their virtues, and with recipes and quantities to be used according to the ailment. They include grass, gratiola, housleek, horstail, and horsemint – all very interestingly identified by their English name. A wonderful, quite unique sammelband.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARTWRIGHT, Thomas.; with [HESTER, John, trans.; FIORAVANTI, Leonardo.]; with LEVENS, Peter.; and [LANGHAM, William.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868708708687,"sku":"L4502","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/wholebook_6d38e696-dc91-4249-9868-efd3bcc719ff.png?v=1781793422"},{"product_id":"sennert-andreas","title":"SENNERT, Andreas.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA most interesting copy of the first edition of this famous Arabic grammar printed in Wittenberg   with extensive annotations from a learned scholar c.1680-90. Western annotations in Arabic at this date are most uncommon. Son of the physician Daniel Sennert, Andreas (1606-89) was a pupil of the renowned Arabist Johannes Golius, and professor of Oriental Languages and librarian at Wittenberg from 1640 until his death.  [He] had a significant impact in shaping the further course of studies in Hebrew and Oriental languages [...]. He had a special interest in Arabic [...] not only as an additional philological tool for interpreting the Old Testament but also because of its importance as a still living language and a means for direct access to the scientific writings of the Arabs  (Miletto, p.17).   Arabismus  is an Arabic grammar explained comparatively. It includes chapters on the Arabic script, verbs, nouns, adjectives, and numbers, and is followed by an Arabic-Latin dictionary, based on Germanus   Fabrica Linguae Arabicae  (1639) and al-Firuzabadi's C14  Qamus . The copious annotations, produced by a knowledgeable scholar c.1680-90, are a treasure trove on early Arabic studies. The closest appears to be the hand of Adriaan Reland (1676-1718), the famous Dutch orientalist, professor at Utrecht.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Among the (Protestant) sources mentioned by the annotator are Edward Pococke s  Oratio  in  Carmen Tograi  (1661), Wasmuth s (1654) and Erpenius  grammars, Cappel s  Arcanum punctuationis  (1624), but also the Arabic Gospels (Rome, 1590\/1). The first notes discuss Arabic script in relation to the Hebrew, with a focus on the original absence of dots on Arabic letters. The annotator added Wasmuth s subdivision of the  awzaan  into three classes, and integrated a great number of examples (e.g., the use of  fatha  in the negated future, diptote noun rules, plurals, a reference to a word used in the Tamimi dialect, etc.) from Erpenius  grammar, which he cross-referenced so frequently and carefully as to make it possible to identify the edition, that of 1656. The annotator even compared a section on the plurals of nouns with quadriliteral roots mentioning that Erpenius, Golius, Wasmuth, and Sennert himself used examples 'not to the point , unlike E. Castell in  Lexicon Heptaglotton  (1669) (p.48). He profusely annotated the chapter on apophonic vowel changes of ya, waw and alif, commenting on Wasmuth s explanation and Giggeius  in  Thesaurus linguae arabicae  (1632). He had access to a very specialised library, including books not present at Wittenberg (as per Sennert s catalogue dated 1678), e.g., T. Hackspan s  Fides et leges Mohammaedis  (1646) (of which he mentions p.27  if one adds the page numbers ; indeed, the book s pages are unnumbered).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SENNERT, Andreas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868710314319,"sku":"L4724","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4724-titlepage.png?v=1781793409"},{"product_id":"panteo-giovanni-agostino","title":"PANTEO, Giovanni Agostino","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition  of great rarity  (Duveen) of this early printed alchemical work by a Venetian Catholic priest, this copy annotated and augmented with extensive manuscript tables by a contemporary reader, possibly a medical student.   \u003cbr\u003e\n Panteo s work was concerned with the alchemical transmutation of metals into gold. He attempted to identify numerical secrets in the Cabbala, which could be used to determine proportions of metals to be used in the processes of transmutation, which he divided into putrefaction, generation and alteration.  In a second preface to the reader he promises to elucidate completely   the transmutation of metals. Actually he only succeeds in making the matter more mysterious by various charts, diagrams and columns of letters and numbers as well as the Tetragrammaton and Greek and Hebrew characters   In additional to all this mystic reckoning, such tremendous secrets are imparted as that the first principle of nature is matter and that the second principle is heat   It is explained that air is generated from the heat of fire and the moisture of water, while earth comes from the dryness of fire and the coldness of water combined  (Thorndike, p. 538). The second part, addressed to a Polish nobleman, Gulielmus Hyerosky, contains recipes for the transmutation of silver and gold, with numerical tables giving the proportions of each metal to be used, as well as instructions for the preparation of pestles, etc.  \u003cbr\u003e\n Panteo was the first Christian author who attempted to blend the Cabbala with the Hermetic alchemical tradition. Panteo s letter to Pope Leo X, framed within a charming woodcut border, justifies alchemy as a pious, scholarly pursuit. Leo was interested in alchemy, and the letter is preceded by his edict authorising the publication of Panteo s book and protecting it from piracy, etc., subscribed by his secretary Pietro Bembo, thus ignoring C15th prohibitions on alchemy passed by the Catholic Church. Panteo s work was eventually placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1559. \u003cbr\u003e\n The extensive manuscript additions at the end appear to be a schema for human intellectual pursuits, beginning with  bonorum humanorum,  or good things of men, in which alchemy, astrology, mathematics and medicine are eventually figured as derivatives of broader ethical categories: the tables deal first with the virtues, which are arranged and further divided up, and secondly with the aspects of a faithful religious life, including liberality, friendship, innocence, mercy, etc., which are again set out and divided into their constituent parts. The annotator then divides intellect into human and divine parts, the former containing magic, which contains the obviously bad parts such as witchcraft, divination, etc., but also alchemy, pyromancy, geomancy, etc. etc. (Strangely, alchemy is given no further treatment, despite this annotator s sustained and intensive engagement with Panteo s text.) The other branches of human knowledge, which constitute the next few tables, are rhetoric, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, astrology, music, and practical or  real  things, which include on one side politics and economics, and on the other armoury, navigation, mechanics, and medicine. The annotator then dedicates several tables to medicine, dividing the discipline chiefly between Hippocrates and Galen, who are both subjected to long and detailed tabular derivations, but especially the latter.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PANTEO, Giovanni Agostino","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868717457743,"sku":"L4834","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"howell-james-1","title":"HOWELL, James.","description":".A crisp copy of James Howell's popular account of the history of London, complete with Hollar's engraved illustration of the city with numbered key. Howell's account is a rather spirited recasting of earlier descriptions of the city, chiefly Stow's 1598 Survey. It is a wide-ranging discussion of the city's history, geography, governance and size, with a final section comparing it to other great cities of the world. Significant focus is given to St Paul's Church, London Bridge, the London Guilds, and each Ward of the city. The work includes a contents page and index, as well as a list of other works by the author and a dedicatory poem to London Bridge in both Latin and English. Howell was known as a talented linguist thanks to his time spent working in Europe, and enjoyed a varied career working in commerce and politics alongside his writing. Londinopolis has been called 'his most popular publication of the [commonwealth] period' (DNB X 112)..\r.\r..Several errors in pagination, including a gap between pages 124 and 301, might be explained by the collaborative printing effort of the book's production. There appear to be two issues of this first edition, both dated 1657 but one without Thomas Dring's name. The two engravings are from highly notable continental engravers. The portrait of Howell, leaning against an oak in a forest, is a collaboration between French engravers Claude Mellan (1598-1688) and Abraham Bosse (1602-1676); a first version was printed in the 1641 French edition of Howell's Dendrologia. The illustration of London is the work of Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677), a Czech artist who produced a number of famous illustrations of the city... .\r.\r..This copy was gifted to a \"Jacob Bonnel\" on the 9th June 1657 by a friend, likely the author himself, as noted in pencil on the front pastedown. Unfortunately the flyleaf to which the note refers, holding Howell's autograph, has been removed. Jacob Bonnell served as Master of the Grocers Company for a short time in 1675 until his death on 6 May of that year; he is marked as becoming an Alderman in 1670. This book would be an apt gift for someone active in the London Guilds. A few annotations in a later C17 hand, mark an intriguingly sceptical engagement with the text of the book. Alongside correcting minor errors, his copious marginal notes to p.389 question Howell's figures on London's population and death rate: \"According to this calculation, the inhabitants of London in 1657 were 150,000 [...] the true number multiplying 12430 by 20, will be 250600\". Likewise his comment on the population figures stated on p.403: \"In 1636 above 700,000. This must be a mistake\". The annotations display mathematical literacy as well as a certain interest in medical issues, mentioning \"the great mortality which prevailed formerly from the filth [in] the town, infectious fevers, \u0026amp; small pox\" as well as naming Lord Lumley as the founder of the Lumleian lectures, suggesting a reader with medical interests, and probably one writing after the Great Fire. A very intriguing copy..","brand":"HOWELL, James.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722733391,"sku":"L4521","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/wholebook-3.png?v=1781793337"},{"product_id":"rosselli-cosimo","title":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this fascinating and wonderfully illustrated treatise on memory, utilising visual aids including Heaven, Hell, and the celestial spheres   illustrating a memory system inspired by Dante s Divine Comedy   anatomical and zoological illustrations, and tables of contemporary objects and rebuses, as well as Persian and Hebrew alphabets, and an alphabetical sign language employing the hands. The author was a Dominican friar from Florence who died the year before this work, apparently his only output, was published. This copy has been extensively annotated by a contemporary, likely monastic reader, including four alphabetical memory lists, of ecclesiastical dignities, place names, body parts and corporeal qualities, and instruments and apparatuses... . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The Ars memoriae or art of memory has a history stretching to antiquity; the Greek poet Simonides is supposed to have invented it to memorise poems. Aristotle wrote extensively on memory, which the medieval scholastics understood as necessary for comprehension by the intellect and a useful tool for use in disputations. The Renaissance humanists, similarly, via Cicero and Quintilian, understood memoria as one of the five crucial parts of rhetoric. Rosselli s work precedes the most famous Renaissance works of memory, by the Italian polymath Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), by several years. Bruno s earliest book of memory, De umbris idearum, published in 1582, included a Dantesque vision of Hell, the celestial and terrestrial orders, and Heaven. Both Dominicans, Rosselli and Bruno were participating in a tradition of memory treatises associated with the religious order, the earliest being Johannes Romberch s Congestorium artificiosae memoriae of 1520, which also contained a Dantesque mnemonic system. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Rosselli begins with a prose description of Hell, accompanied by mnemonic Latin epigrams and quatrains by a fellow Dominican who was also an Inquisitor,  giving an impressive air of great orthodoxy to the artificial memory  (Frances Yates, The Art of Memory (London: 1966), p. 122). Hell is illustrated with a superb woodcut (C4r) showing Lucifer in the centre surrounded by concentric circles of heretics, Jews, idolators, hypocrites, those guilty of the seven deadly sins, all encompassed by the river Styx, various Limbos, and Purgatory.  As Rosselli cheerfully observes,  the variety of punishments, inflicted in accordance with the diverse nature of the sins, the different situations of the damned, their varying gestures, will much help memory and give many loci  (Yates, p. 122). This is accompanied by descriptions with woodcut illustrations of the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and of Paradise or the Heavenly Jerusalem, the latter illustrated with a woodcut (K1v, duplicated N3r) showing Cherubim and Seraphim, the Tree and Fountain of Life, the Throne of Christ, Seat of the Virgin, and regions inhabited by children, Hebrew saints, martyrs, virgins, angels, princes, etc. The remainder consists of lists and sub-lists, often alphabetised: planets, the zodiac signs and months of the year; precious stones, gems and minerals derived from Albertus Magnus; animals, including those that live underground, quadrupeds, birds and insects, etc.; trees and plants, including fruit, gum, legumes and common names for herbs; the names of artificers and workmen; and ancient philosophers and thinkers, physicians and poets.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The contemporary reader (or readers) of this copy employed an elegant script possibly in two iterations, one of which is miniscule and barely legible. Evidently returning to the book on several occasions (see different tones of ink), they frequently corrected the woodcuts, headers and content of the book, and cross-referenced its various sections. The annotator using miniscule script extensively glossed Rosselli s lists of philosophers and gemstones, while the main annotator, in large script, not only added to the author s lists and annotated the woodcut tables, but also created their own alphabetical lists for memorisation. These are of ecclesiastical benefices; learned positions such as orator, jurisconsultus, etc.;  corporeal qualities  such as gibbosus, obesus, splendidus, etc.; and a fascinating and extensive list of hundreds of words, spreading over several pages, of  various instruments,  apparatuses, buildings, materials, tools, body parts, etc., apparently demonstrating some extremely obscure Latin vocabulary, and including baptisterium, candelabrum, enchiridion, forceps, membrana, refrigeratorium, tormentum, vinum album, xystus (colonnade) and zythus (a kind of liquor)..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722962767,"sku":"L4299","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-1.png?v=1781793338"},{"product_id":"dieu-lodewijk-de-and-tawus-jacob","title":"DIEU, Lodewijk de and TAWUS, Jacob.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this Persian grammar printed with the first two books of Genesis in Persian, followed by two parallel Latin-Persian texts, apparently issued together (though often treated as separate works). The Genesis extracts are the first printed translation of any part of the Bible into Persian using Persian script, and this is only the second ever book printed in Persian. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.Dieu s grammar, written in Latin but with occasional examples given in Dutch, begins with the Persian alphabet, noting in particular those letters that are easily confused with one another, as well as the similarities and differences between Persian and Arabic orthography, noting pronunciation. The second book discusses verbs, third cases, tenses and adjectives, names, numbers and pronouns, while the fourth discusses adverbs, negations, demonstratives, interrogatives, prepositions, conjugations and interjections. The translator of the Genesis extracts was Jacob Tawus, a Persian translator who worked in Constantinople in the sixteenth century; his biblical translations had been printed in the Polyglot Bible published in Constantinople in 1546, but transliterated into Hebrew letters. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.The second part is a life of St. Peter derived from a  contaminated  source, while the final work, an equally corrupted account of the life of Christ, uses the Latin translation from a Persian text by Jeronimo Xavier, grand-nephew of Francis Xavier, who assisted in the foundation of the Jesuits. Jeronimo was a missionary in the Mughal courts in the first years of the C17th, where he learned Persian and spent time translating Persian texts. To both works, Dieu provides an extensive textual commentary, which criticises the accuracy of the text and in the latter case, Jeronimo s translation. With the second part are included two letters sent from Lahore in 1598, the first containing Jeronimo s brief history of the Mughals, the second an account by a fellow Jesuit of Jeronimo s describing the conversion of Muslims there to Christianity. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n. The history of early Persian printing with moveable type is inextricably intertwined with the development of Arabic types. Apart from the matter of stylistic preferences, a sixteenth-century Arabic type could be used to print Persian books merely by the addition of three dots to the existing (non-dotted) letterforms. For this reason, the gap of over a century between the publication of the first Arabic and the first Persian books cannot be due only to the lack of available printing types. It is better explained by   the role of Arabic as the prime language of Islam  (Borna Izadpanah,  Early Persian Printing and Typefounding in Europe  in Journal of the Printing Historical Society, 29 (2018), p. 89). Early efforts by Giovanni Battista Raimondi (1536-1614) at the Medici Oriental Press in Rome were never published. In 1633 (often erroneously dated earlier) the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide brought out a small   and very scarce   Persian grammar, Alphabetum Persicum, making Dieu s only the second book to be printed using Persian type.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..William Aspin was admitted a pensioner at Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1652 and gained his DD in 1683. He was rector of Emberton in Buckinghamshire until his death in 1714. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIEU, Lodewijk de and TAWUS, Jacob.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723552591,"sku":"L4813","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"scala-pace-1","title":"SCALA, Pace.","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome first edition of this work on expert or academic legal commentary (consilia) and judicial decisions by the little-known Paduan jurist Pace or Pax Scala (d. 1604), one of the few legal texts printed at the Aldine press. The book is set out as a series of quaestiones with responses by Scala, addressed to a fellow lawyer or patron called Bartolomeo Vitelli. The subject is the relationship of the written law to the legal opinions of jurists. The first book addresses the nature and status of consilia, as well as of jurists: can a Jewish convert, for example, become a jurist, since Jews could not? Scala is obviously interested in the relationship of Jewish citizens to the law courts, since he returns to it in the second book, which is an examination of different cases that might arise in the courts: Scala asks if Jews can bring suits against Christians, since Jews belong to a ‚Äòdifferent flock‚Äô. The third and fourth books discuss the relationship between learned consilia and judicial decisions, the most basic questions being whether, where, and when a judge should follow the letter of the law or the opinion given in a learned consilium. Situations discussed include when the judge disagrees with the consilia, when two different consilia disagree, and when the judge dies mid-case. There follows a brief work on how consilia relate to contracts and wills and testaments, and whether these should rely on consilia or the letter of the law in various situations, addressed to the Italian jurist Ottonelli Discaltio (1536-1607).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy bears the signature of Johann Fischard, signing himself as utriusque juris doctor, i.e. doctor of both civil and canon law. The date on our signature unfortunately rules out the famous German satirist Johann Fischart (c.1545-91), who was indeed a doctor of both laws; there is an example from 1580 of him signing himself as ‚Äòv.j.d.‚Äô (i.e. utriusque juris doctor), but in a slightly different hand and spelling his name Fischart. However, no one could be expected to have obtained their doctorate in both laws by the age of fifteen, which is roughly when students began their undergraduate degrees, and Fischart most likely did not gain his until the 1570s. Either the consensus on Fischart‚Äôs birth date is well off, therefore, or, more probably, this signature is that of another German doctor of both laws, born slightly earlier and with the very similar name of Fischard. A possible candidate is the Johann Fischard who was a pupil at the school in Frankfurt run by Jakob Mycillus, a former student of Melanchthon, and who contributed to a 1528 compendium of humanist Latin poetry and translations by Melanchthon‚Äôs circle (see Nathaniel Hess, ‚ÄòAngelo Poliziano and the Renaissance Invention of Greek-to-Latin Verse Translation‚Äô PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (2022), p. 101).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‚ÄòVolume devenu rare et peu d‚Äôusage‚Äô (Renouard).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SCALA, Pace.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723847503,"sku":"L4852","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"goltzius-hubert-1","title":"GOLTZIUS, Hubert.","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition in German of the painter Hubert Goltzius s lives of the ancient and modern Roman emperors, from Julius Caesar to Charles V and Ferdinand II, beautifully illustrated with over one hundred chiaroscuro woodcuts derived from portraits on coins, published in the same year as editions in Latin and Italian. Chiaroscuro printing involves one or more coloured woodblocks, relief being achieved through the use of the natural white of the paper to provide highlights. Goltzius was  the first artist from any country to adapt the chiaroscuro print successfully to the requirement of full-scale book illustration (Bialler, p. 30). This was his earliest published work of numismatics, and was,  in its size and scale ‚Äö without precedent in the field of numismatics  (ibid., p. 31).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGoltzius's catalogue inhabits a common trope employed by countless humanists and antiquarians of the period: adjoining the Habsburg dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors to an historical account of the ancient Roman emperors. Goltzius, however, added the element of basing portraits of the emperors on their portrayals on coins, his putative numismatic evidence (which cannot have always been strictly accurate) lending credence to the idea of a continuous Roman imperatorial lineage. Initially the series was to include 148 medallions, but a number remained uncompleted for the first three editions. In the Latin edition, presumably the earliest, Goltzius employed an etched line block to provide the outlines, and one or two tone blocks depending on the colouring. In this edition, however, a number of the medallions are printed using a woodcut line block and only one tone block, which removed the need for printing on two presses (one for the etched block and another for the woodblocks), and reduced the number of runs through the press. Van Mander stated that the etched line blocks were made by Goltzius himself, and the woodblocks by Joos Gietleughen (Bialler).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis was an impeccably well-researched book, as demonstrated by the long catalogue of authors cited, in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and German. Goltzius begins with an historical catalogue of the triumphs won by consuls and triumvirs of ancient Rome, from the foundation of the city by Romulus to the death of Augustus. This is followed by a quote from Ammianus Marcellinus, the ancient Roman soldier in the army of Julian the Apostate. Each coin portrait is then accompanied by a brief life of the emperor in question, compiled from these sources. There is also a genealogy of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. The final portrait of Ferdinand II differs from that in the Latin edition, showing him only as a bust, as opposed to a half-portrait holding sceptre.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GOLTZIUS, Hubert.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723880271,"sku":"L4888","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"p-j-c-i-e-povel-jensen-colding","title":"P.J.C. [i.e. Povel Jensen Colding].","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery rare first and only edition of the first published Danish-Latin dictionary, by Tycho Brahe s (1546-1601) young assistant, who was briefly with Brahe in the last year of his life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe preface is dedicated to the Bishop of Zealand Hans Poulson Resen, who had placed his library collections at Colding s disposal. It refers to Colding s earlier work, Etymologicum Latinum, a folio work published at Rostock in 1622, begun before his appointment. The dictionary, like the Etymologicum, is significant for the wealth of Danish words that it collected. The preface argues for the virtues of the Danish language, which Colding worries has been corrupted by invasive foreign influence. Latin is posited as the language best suited do express Danish because of its applicability to both domestic words and to the technical and mechanical arts. One interesting entry, for example, is for Bisspe paa Skackspil, i.e. bishops in chess, for which Colding gives the Latin definition saggitarius, i.e. archer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Danish sources, in 1601 Colding (1581-1640) travelled to Prague, serving Brahe from June until his final illness in October. Brahe was at the time working on the Rudolphine Tables, but not all of Brahe s servants helped with his astronomical work, and there is no evidence that Colding was proficient in such matters. Colding then travelled in Europe, visiting Rome and Germany, before returning home in 1604. Fulfilling various ecclesiastical and administrative offices, in 1622 he was chosen as headmaster of Herlufsholm, a gymnasium in Naestved founded in 1565 by Herluf Trolle and his wife Birgitte G‚àö‚àèye, the declining fortunes of which he dramatically improved. It was here that Colding wrote his Danish-Latin dictionary (for which it is also named), designed primarily for the use of his students. He resigned his post in 1638.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"P.J.C. [i.e. Povel Jensen Colding].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868723913039,"sku":"L4810","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"bude-guillaume-with-priscian","title":"BUDÉ, Guillaume. (With) PRISCIAN.","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare edition of Budé’s De asse et partibus eius, on Roman weights, measures and coinage, extremely popular and one of the most influential works of sixteenth-century humanism, bound with the rare first Badius Ascensius edition of the works of Priscian, which contains his treatise on Roman weights and measures. The Budé is the ‘definitive’ authorised edition, being the last to contain changes made during Budé’s lifetime.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBudé’s work on Roman weights and measures was more than just an antiquarian treatise; it was a sweeping reconstruction of ancient Roman culture, based on Budé’s expert knowledge of Latin and Greek as well as Roman law, that inspired generations of humanists. It became the standard textbook for those interested in Roman coinage. As stated in the colophon, this is the last edition on which Budé himself had any influence, augmented and enlarged with corrections made by him prior to his death in 1540. A first issue was printed 1 November 1541, with this, the second issue, in January 1542, according to the colophons. At the end are reprinted Josse Bade’s notes from the prior edition, published by him in 1532, which also carried a colophon declaring its authorisation by Budé.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePriscian was the most significant Latin grammarian to survive from antiquity. His most important work is this famous Latin grammar, the 18 books of the Institutionis Grammatices. This is followed by a number of shorter works, one on Roman weights and measures, along with: the elements of rhetoric, De constructione et ordinatione partium orationis; on Latin accents; his commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid; his translation of Hermogenes of Tarsus on rhetoric; his commentary on comic verses; works on the metre of Terence, metre used in rhetoric, and his commentary on Rufinus; and on the declination of nouns and pronouns, conjugations, and participles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI: ‘… beaucoup corrigée et augmentée … un beau volume’ (Renouard).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BUDÉ, Guillaume. (With) PRISCIAN.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868724142415,"sku":"L4806","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"ville-antoine-de","title":"VILLE, Antoine de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition, first published 1628, of Antoine de Ville s sumptuously illustrated book of military architecture, from the library of John Evelyn (1620-1706), English polymath, diarist, horticulturalist and bibliophile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDe Ville begins with a series of methods for geometrical calculation of various polygons, as well as descriptions of the components of modern fortification, before relating their application to regular and irregular forts, and those with less than six bastions at the corners, which included fortified ports, fortifications on bridges, etc. The second and third books contain De Ville s theories for attacking and defending fortifications and fortified towns, with historical examples, including mounting and repelling surprise attacks, fighting long sieges, conducting sorties, mining and countermining, destroying pontoon bridges, etc. He also gives advice on suppressing  seditions and revolts . De Ville s work was innovative in regard to the methodology that he set out for tracing the arrangement of fortifications, according to fixed figures for the base side of a polygon, at either 150 or 180 paces. His genuinely original contribution, however, related to his calculations for the bastions at the corners. Essentially, he developed the Italian Renaissance design of fortifications into a science. The plates depict birds-eye designs for forts as well as perspectival views of forts within imaginary landscapes, often combined with geometrical diagrams, which are in other cases contained within architectural borders.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Evelyn, famous diarist, horticulturist and bibliophile, left Oxford in 1637 without taking a degree and travelled on the Continent, including time spent in Paris, which he eventually left in 1647. He therefore purchased this book not long before his return to England, where he devoted his time to designing gardens at his house of Sayes Court, Deptford, and writing several books on horticulture. He was a founding member of the Royal Society and also wrote on sculpture, medals, theology, and pollution.  Evelyn was an active bibliophile throughout his life, who devoted much interest to his library. His 1687 manuscript catalogue   lists c. 4000 volumes, and over 800 pamphlets.   His years in Paris   helped to form his tastes for handsome books and bindings   made in both Paris and London, in both calf and goatskin to a high quality; he spent more on bindings than the average book purchaser of the time  (BOO). Evelyn proposed a system of shelfmark classification employing 24 letter shelfmarks and 95 word shelfmarks. In reality, he used all 26 letters of the alphabet but only 23 words. These bore no relation to subject matter, as he intended, but may have represented a purely practical classification by size: Hercules and Vulcanus were exclusively used to denote folio books (J. McL. Emmerson,  Dan Fleming and John Evelyn  in Bulletin of the Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, 27.1-2, p. 59). Many of Evelyn s books were sold during his lifetime: he instructed his son to   dispose of the duplicates, and to purge out many frivolous French books and other trash, to exchange them for such books as we want, and are of more use   (ibid.). This French book evidently survived, passing to Evelyn s descendants, and was sold at Christie s in 1977, lot number 1524.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VILLE, Antoine de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868724240719,"sku":"L4897","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-12_at_5.25.01_PM.png?v=1781281560","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/annotated.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}