Category: Uncategorized

April 28, 2011

PRINTED 1723: THE MOST IMPORTANT AND ACCLAIMED 18th CENTURY TREATISE ON THE MYSTERY OF CHINESE LAQUER AND VARNISH

AN IMPORTANT TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION, ESPECIALLY IN ITS FRENCH EDITION, TO CHINOISERIE

The Book:

Bonanni, Filippo. Traitè des vernis : où l’on donne la maniere d’en composer un, qui reffemble parfaitment à celui de la Chine, & plufieurs autres qui concernent la painture, la dorure, la gravure à l’eau forte, & c … Publisher: Paris : D’Houry, 1723. small 8vo., 16 x 9.5 cm., 18th century calf and gilt, raised bands, some binding wear including wear to l.r. corner of front board, and head and tail of spine, ex-libris pen to flyleaf and stamp to t.p., some light browning and spotting. COMPLETE and RARE. [SOLD]

This is the first French translation of Filippo Bonanni’s highly important treatise on Chinese lacquer, providing an historical overview of its introduction to Europe and early Chinese trading with the West, as well as a technical guide to some of its “mysteries”. Various recipes are presented as affordable alternatives as well as suggestions for their best use and application. There existed great commercial interests in improving European lacquerware based on Chinese models. In France, imitation lacquerware had been produced at the Gobelins factory since 1672. The suggestions in this treatise were employed in the decoration of the petits appartmements at Versailles but also for a vast range of domestic articles based on decorative designs by Boucher and other well known artists of the period.

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April 28, 2011

PRINTED 1601. THE MILTON FRIEDMAN OF SALAMANCA

The 5 Volume COMPLETE Collected works in FOLIO of Martín de Azpilcueta, the Canonist and economist, credited as the FIRST to develop monetarist theory

With the Wonderful Cat and Mouse Printer Device of the Sessa Printing House

The Set:

Martin de Azpilcueta D. Martini ab Azpilcueta Navarri… Opera omnia, quae quidem adhuc fideliter habita sunt, atque edita, ipsius manu extrema donata, & auctoritate roborata,in quinque tomos divisa, commentarios, enchiridia, tractatus, relationesque, ac denique consilia omnia complectens. Venetiis apud Sessas (apud Dominicum Nicolinum) 1601. D. Martini Azpilcuetae Navarri… Commentarii et tractatus ad sacras confessiones, orationesque ac indulgentias omnino pertinentes, D. Martini Azpilcuetae Navarri… Commentarii et tractatus, relectionesve in capita quaedam iuris canonici multa doctrina affluentes… cum indice rerum, ac verborum insignium locupletissimo, D. Martini Azpiculetae Navarri… Consiliorum seu responsorum quinque libris, iuxta titulos… FOLIO, 5 vol. ([24], 381 p.; 381; 139, [67] c.; [104], 267; 194 p.) CONTEMPORARY LIMP VELLUM with Spanish Calligraphic lettering, some browning, textblock separation, toning, foxing; ex-Seminary marking (white lettering can be removed with light acetone rubbing). Overall, A COMPLETE, RARE SET appearing only once in 30 years of the American auction records and CONTAINING THE FAMOUS AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT ECONOMIC WORK ON USURY (114-132 in Tomus Alter of the Consiliorum, Seu Responsorum)
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posted in: Rare Books, Uncategorized

January 26, 2011

HANDSOMELY PRINTED ITALIAN MEDICAL BOTANICAL / HERBAL

68 etched and engraved plates containing 554 plans

Giambattista Morandi. Historia botanica practica; sev, Plantarum, quae ad usum medicinae pertinent, nomenclatura descriptio, et virtutes, cum ab antiquis, tum a recentibus celebrium auctorum scriptis desumptae, ac aeneis tabulis delineatae, atque ad vivum ex prototypo expressae, nec non in classes XXV. distributae. (Milan) Mediolani, Apud J. Galeatium, 1761. with engraved added title page: Historia botanico-practica stirpium, atque herbarum, quae ad usum medicinae pertinent. LARGE FOLIO. 42 cm., [12], 32, 164, [1] p. lxviii plates.; 2 initials and 68 plates, all by Morandi . Contemporary Italian mottled calf gilt, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco label, loss to one spine compartment, some toning, foxing, occasional minor dampstaining, but overall A VERY GOOD AND COMPLETE COPY.   [SOLD]

“A CHARMINGLY ILLUSTRATED WORK ON THE PLANTS THAT WERE THEN CONSIDERED TO BE OF USE IN MEDICINE. A second edition was published in 1761.” (Ref: Christies) “Morandi was a botanical artist at the Castello Valentino under Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. The Historia contains 68 etched and engraved plates on which 554 plants are figured.” [Ref: Herbals at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln]

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January 26, 2011

PRINTED 1578: MAGNIFICENT AND VERY RARE 16th CENTURY ITALIAN EMBLEM BOOK


WITH TITIAN’S FAMOUS DEVICE OF A BEAR LICKING HER CUBS

SIXTY-FOUR (64) beautiful and enigmatic emblematic plates

PITTONI, BATTISTA (1520-1583) and LODOVICO DOLCE (1508-1659.) Imprese nobili et ingeniose di diversi Principi et d’ altre personaggi illustri nell’ arme et nelle lettere : con le diciarationi in versi Venetia, 1578. 4to., 27 cm., wide margined and handsome copy. 18th century Italian boards and vellum., 122 p. : ill engraved title, engraved dedication & 64 emblematic plates, 2 plates with crude early repairs touching emblems with loss, 1 plate with hairline tear with no loss in emblem, some toning throughout as usual, spotting, and minor staining. The work includes a depiction of Titian’s famous device of a bear licking her cubs (see photos below). Fine impressions of the plates. COMPLETE AND VERY RARE.  [SOLD]

These are the emblems and devices used by historical and distinguished personages in the sixteenth century, within rich ornamental borders ; all probably engraved by Girolamo Porro (c. 1520 – after 1604), the highly regarded Italian engraver. Lines of verse by Dolce are engraved at foot of each. [Ref: 1. French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese books of devices and emblems, 1534-1827: a bibliography, by John Landwehr, Utrecht, Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1976; 2. Rosand, David . “Titian and the Critical Tradition,” in Titian: His World and His Legacy, ed. pg. 16, 36; note 16; 3. Quaritch, B. A catalogue of fifteen hundred books remarkable for the beauty or the age…, 1889, item 1225]

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October 2, 2010

PRINTED 1481: A HANDSOME AND FRESH KOBERGER INCUNABLE

RARE UNFINISHED UNDERDRAWINGS IN PREPARATION FOR LARGE ILLUMINATED INITIALS

Scotus, Johns Duns.  Quaestiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum.  Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1481.  Part III and IV in 1 volume.  FOLIO,  347 mm.  [58], [140] lvs. Parts COMPLETE including initial and final blanks.  Edited by Thomas Penketh and Bartholomaeus Bellatus. Commentary on Petrus Lombardus’ Sententiarum libri quattuor.  Ref: Brit. Mus. Cat. (XV cent.) II, p. 419,  Goff. Third census, D-380.  Later 19th century boards with wear to hinges. Internally, except for some minor marginal worming, a remarkably FRESH COPY; handsomely rubricated in red throughout.  Large penwork initial in fictive frame for each part, in a rare unfinished state, drawn in preparation for illumination.

The unfinished initials, present here as underdrawings, are highly interesting and serve as fine and rare examples of the early process of medieval illumination.   A master artisan was responsible for the layout of the composition prior to the application of gold.  As can be seen in these examples, a metal point, especially a leadpoint, or diluted ink was generally used.

“Anton Koberger (was the godfather of Albrecht Dürer, whose family lived on the same street. In the year before Dürer’s birth in 1471 he ceased goldsmithing to become a printer and publisher. He quickly became the most successful publisher in Germany, absorbing his rivals over the years to become a large capitalist enterprise, with twenty-four presses in operation, printing numerous works simultaneously and employing at its height 100 workers:[3] printers, typesetters, typefounders, illuminators, and the like. Constantly improving his business prospects, he sent out traveling agents and established links with booksellers all over Western Europe, including Venice, Europe’s other great centre of printing, Milan, Paris, Lyon, Vienna and Budapest. At the supply end, he obtained two papermills” [Wikipedia]

“John (Johannes) Duns Scotus, O.F.M. (c. 1265 – 8 November 1308) was one of the more important theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought.Scotus has had considerable influence on Catholic thought. The doctrines for which he is best known are the “univocity of being,” that existence is the most abstract concept we have, applicable to everything that exists; the formal distinction, a way of distinguishing between different aspects of the same thing; and the idea of haecceity, the property supposed to be in each individual thing that makes it an individual. Scotus also developed a complex argument for the existence of God, and argued scripturally for the Immaculate conception of Mary.

Scotus is considered one of the most important Franciscan theologians and was the founder of Scotism, a special form of Scholasticism.” [Wikipedia]

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