Search Results: Authors starting with L from Asher Rare Books

XVI, 440; 332, 109, [3] pp.; [1], 44 engraved ll.The first(?) octavo edition of a famous account of an important expedition to Australia and the surrounding islands, published in the same year as the first quarto edition, together with the very rare 1811 second edition of the atlas volume, printed from the plates of the first edition, which had also appeared in 1799/1800. Jacques La Billardière or Labillardière (1755-1834), one of the expedition's naturalists, gives not only a report of the expedition's anthropological and natural historical findings, but also a personal account of an attempt to solve a mystery that began on 10 March 1788 when the French explorer Jean-François Galaup de La Pérouse sailed out of Botany Bay, New South Wales, and was never seen again by Europeans. His disappearance was a matter of great national concern in France.In 1791, the French National Assembly sent a rescue expedition under the command of Antoine Raymond Joseph Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, who failed to find any… Read More

[2], VIII, 139, [1] pp.First and only Dutch edition of an interesting treatise describing and depicting the practical use of a newly invented life jacket (water jacket and water pants) enabling men to remain in water for extended periods of time and to walk upright through the deepest waters or to enable people to execute work to be done in water, deep or shallow.The present flotation suit was according to the author a big improvement on earlier inventions by Thevenot, Digby, Wynman, Gelaci, and especially on the more recent invention by Wilkinson. La Chapelle's invention consisted of a sleeveless jacket covering the upper body, and a pair of trousers, the jacket comprising floats to transform the wearer so to speak into a human boat, as is indicated also by the French title. The floats could be altered to allow the wearer to submerge. Spine lost, back wrapper and title-page loose, book block broken into two parts and slightly frayed along the edges. Otherwise an uncut copy of a rare work in good… Read More

[8], 169, [1 blank]; [10], LX, 306, [5], [1 blank] pp.First edition of an account of a voyage of three Trinitarian Fathers, François Comelin, Joseph Bernard and Philemon de la Motte, to Algiers and Tunis, initiated to free Christians enslaved by the Muslim rulers of North Africa. It describes the people they meet in Algiers, the progress of their negotiations with ambassadors, and the manners and customs of the Moors living in North Africa, and their journey to Tunis and back to France. Also included are more general descriptions of the cities and their ports. According to Barbier, the account was written by Jean-Baptiste de la Faye. The second part, La tradition de l'eglise, includes a list with the names of more than 400 Christian slaves, noting their ages and years in captivity and describing their return home. It also quotes Biblical texts related to slaves, captives and prisoners, to illustrate the proper Christian attitude towards slavery. With two owner's inscriptions in ink on title-page.… Read More

[8], 198, [2] pp.Rare first edition of a journal of an expedition to Candia (Heraklion), Greece, commanded by François d'Aubusson, duc de la Feuillade (1625-1691), to help the Venetians during the Siege of Candia (1645-1669) against the Ottoman Empire. De la Feuillade had already fought the Ottoman forces at the battle of St. Gothard in 1664 and volunteered to help. With assistance from Pope Clement IX he equipped 500 men at his own expense. The journal was written as a letter by a volunteer on the expedition.The work gives an account of the Cretan war and also contains some valuable information on the Greek Orthodox Church. The manuscript of the text came into the hands of a certain Thioly, who disclaims, however, all knowledge of the author. Two later editions were published in the same year at Grenoble, followed by another in 1670, and an English translation in 1670. With ownerships inscription on first fly-leaf "Ex-libris Stephani...estie, 1670". Very good copy.l Blackmer 859; Goldsmith, BMC STC… Read More

[8], 144, [8] pp.First edition, Wesel issue, of an extensive collection of emblems compiled by Daniel de la Feuille (ca. 1640-1706). The text leaves explain all the emblems displayed in the plates, and each explanation is preceded by a four-line verse in French. The first plate is an engraved title-page, followed by 9 plates with 4 emblems, each accompanied by a banderole with a motto in Latin. Next are 36 plates with 15 small circular emblems with a Latin word within the emblem. They show allegorical and symbolic depictions of words and concepts like logic, freedom, humility, blood, the seasons, the months etc. Also included are two double-page plates with 65 portraits of French kings.With bookplate and library stamps. Slightly browned with some occasional spots and foxing. Binding chafed at corners and hinges cracked. Overall a good copy.l Adams, Rawles and Saunders F.362; Landwehr, Emblem and fable books, 437; Praz, p. 393.

[4], 360, [12] pp.Rare first edition of an interesting description of a voyage to India and the coast of Coromandel. The plates represent Brama, the God of the Indians, the tower of a pagoda, and a man playing the flute to his dancing snakes. A new edition was published in 1774 (Paris, Coustard). M. de La Flotte, who went on board of the squadron of general Lally, was a witness of the 'destruction' of India under the reign of this general. De La Flotte most likely fulfilled the position of scribe on board. He was imprisoned by the English and later went on board of an English ship on its way to China. With the bookplate of H.H. Jonkers; binding slightly rubbed; library stamp on first flyleaf. Good copy of an interesting account on the Coromandel Coast.l Grimm & Diderot, Correspondance littéraire VI, p. 488; not in Brunet; Chadenat; Cox; Graesse.

XLII, [4], 358, [2] pp.First edition of a famous French fable book, beautifully illustrated by the most famous artists of the day. The book contains 100 fables by Antoine Houdar de La Motte (1672-1731), modelled after the fables by Jean de La Fontaine, the most important French fable author ever. Of special interest is La Motte-Houdart's introductory essay on the genre of the fable, setting out rules to be followed, based on the classical ideals of true likeness, unity and proper arrangement. He intends to rival both Aesop and La Fontaine.The book at the same time represents a milestone in French book illustration, introducing Rococo miniatures or vignettes, including 62 by the interior and costume designer Claude Gillon, one of his few works as a book-illustrator. The "Actor's fable" is dedicated to him.Binding rubbed with a few small defects; some slight staining and thumbing. Very good copy.l Cioranescu 36530; Cohen-De Ricci, p. 594 ("Très belle édition, rare et recherchée"); Fabula Docet 94;… Read More

32 pp.First Dutch translation of the accounts of three voyages to Greenland by Jens Munk (John Monck), Martin Frobisher and Godske Lindenau, searching for a passage to the East Indies through the Hudson Strait. Also containing a description of Greenland and an account of whaling (including an unsigned illustration of a beached sperm whale), with new illustrations by Christoffel van Sichem IV (1642-1693). It is a Dutch translation of La Peyrère's 1647 Relation du Groenland (1647), via the somewhat abbreviated German translation published in Hulsius's 1650 collection, which contains the additional description of Spitsbergen and a discourse on whaling. La Peyrère included revised versions of Jens Munk's account of his voyage to Hudson Bay, originally published in Navigatio septentrionalis (1624), and the accounts of voyages by Martin Frobisher and Godske Lindenau. Red armorial library stamp of the Forschungsstelle Volk und Raum on the title-page: this was a research institute active at The Hague during… Read More

[12], 347, [1 blank]; [2], 321, [3] pp.First edition of a narrative detailing La Roque's travels in the Levant (1688-89). The work includes descriptions of the ruins at Baalbek, the customs of the various regional tribes, and an account of the life of Francois Galaup de Chasteuil (based on Marchetti's La vie de monsieur de Chasteuil), a French-born Maronite who lived in Mount Lebanon. The plates depict the Lebanon cedar, coins, and elevations of Baalbek ruins.La Roque studied oriental languages and was the son a merchant from Marseille who was one of the first to introduce coffee to France. Later travels took La Roque to Arabia and Yemen in order to purchase coffee.Spines restored. Very good set, from the library of the historian and soldier Henry Edward Bunbury with his bookplate on upper pastedown.l Atabey 674; Chadenat 7064; not in Blackmer.

[16], 185, [1 blank] pp. plus plates.Second issue of the first edition (1728) of "the most accurate and complete work on the subject of stone-cutting for building" (BAL). An abundantly and clearly illustrated manual on cutting stone for architectural construction, with meticulously detailed instructions. The main text is divided into five parts covering doorways and entry vaults, other vaults, pendentives (sections of domes), rampant (asymmetrical) arches and spiral stairs. All five parts are extensively illustrated, mostly with one or two plates for every chapter, in total 120 full-page plates and 1 large folding plate (plate size 47.5 x 61 cm) showing plans, cross-sections and views of gates, doorways, halls, tunnels, vaults, domes, corridors, niches, windows, staircases, etc. along with some measuring tools. The present copy is said to be on large-paper: it is in any case about the same size as the BAL copy, giving it generous margins. With an 18th-century manuscript bookplate, partly torn away.… Read More

[10], IV, 237, [1]; 234 pp.Very rare first edition of the Portuguese translation of an account of Napoleon's Russian campaign by Eugène Labaume (1783-1849), who served as a lieutenant-colonel in Napoleon's army. His narrative is an important eye-witness account of Napoleon's catastrophic ambitions in Russia. ''The most striking chapters in the book are those which describe the ghastly catastrophe of the headlong rush of the wreck of the Grand Army across the territory which Napoleon had desolated" (Dundas Pillans). The two folding plates show the French and Russian battle camps of Moscow (7 September 1812) and Malo-Jariskavetz (24 October 1812). With Portuguese library stamp on title-page, one plate with a marginal tear (restored), the imprint of a dried flower on pp. 222-223 of volume 2. Front hinge cracked and spine slightly rubbed. Internally in very good condition.l Porbase (1 copy); WorldCat (1 other copy); cf. Dundas Pillans, The crime of 1812 and its retribution (1912).

[6], 226 pp.First edition of a beautifully illustrated work containing descriptions and depictions of 29 French castles and their gardens built in the years just before the Revolution, followed by a more practical consideration of making a picturesque garden. It "is an invaluable record of each of the gardens illustrated, and of a type of garden design that has all but disappeared" (Millard).The work was composed by the writer Alexandere de Laborde (1773-1842), son of a prominent banker, after his illustrator Constant Bourgeois began to sketch views of Laborde's estate at Méréville and its surrounding area. Laborde's "…melancholic nostalgia and love of nature belong to the last Rousseauian decades before the end of the ancient regime, … However, his method is that of post-Revolutionary interest in social and natural conditions. His essay is related to the tendency to discuss social, chronological, and regional backgrounds, and to emphasize regional differences of style" (Millard).Owner's… Read More

[10], 280, [6]; 75, [1 blank] pp.First Latin edition of a popular school book on astronomy, geometry and natural science, translated from the second French edition published at Paris in 1755, together with an Appendix, containing a Latin translation of the corrections and additions of the latest Paris edition of 1761. Nicolas Louis de La Caille (1713-1762), was a famous French astronomer and mathematician, professor at the College Mazarin. The present work, first published at Paris in 1741, contains his lectures to pupils at the College, used in Schefer's Latin translation by the Latin Schools in Vienna and Prague. It covers applied mathematics, cosmography, map making, horology, perspective, surveying, etc. With 10 folding engraved plates with arithmetical exercises and tables in text and geometrical and perspectival figures and illustrations.With old owner's inscription on first endpaper; spine chipped at the upper corner. Very good large-paper copy.l Honeyman 1867; Houzeau-Lancaster 9254;… Read More

248; 240; 230; 256 pp.Rare second edition, a variant of what has been called version C, published in the same year as the first, of one of the most famous works of French literature, a novel in letters about free and almost amoral schemes of courting and seducing women, written by Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803). Laclos was in the first place a military man who made a successful career from captain of the engineering corps to inspector general of Napoleon’s artillery. He wrote literature in his hours of leisure, and published only the present novel.With a small library stamp on two title-pages. Bindings very slightly rubbed, head of spine of vol. I slightly worn, and some slight foxing, otherwise a fine copy.l Cioranescu 35211; cf. Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothécaire, 1952, no. 2, pp. 45-52.

[1 blank], [147] ll.First Venice edition of Lactantius' most important works, edited by Giovanni Andrea Bussi (Joannis Andrea, bishop of Aleria, 1417-1475). Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (ca. 240-ca. 320) was a rhetoric of Berber origin, who converted to Christianity and became an advisor to Emperor Constantine I and tutor to his son. He was one of the very first Christian apologetics and wrote works explaining Christianity in terms that would be palatable to educated people who still practiced the traditional religions of the Empire, while defending Christian beliefs against the criticisms of Hellenistic philosophers. For unknown reasons, Lactantius was considered somewhat heretical after his death and it was therefore forbidden to read and study his work. It was only copied and printed in the 15th century, when the early humanists took a renewed interest in him for his elegant writing style and called him "the Christian Cicero". Bussi, who was a humanist and the bishop of Aleria (on… Read More

[28], 622, [17, 1 blank] pp.Rare enlarged second edition of an important account of the Americas by a director of the Dutch West India Company, Johannes de Laet (1581-1649). As a director of the WIC, Laet was in a good position to have access to information from the great wave of Dutch seafaring in the early part of the 17th century. Each of the 18 constituent books is devoted to a different region of the New World. The first book treats the West Indies, the second Canada, the third Virginia, the fourth Florida, and the fifth Mexico. The sixth book devotes extensive space to discoveries in California, the Gulf of California, and New Mexico. The remaining books describe the northern coast of South America, Peru, Chile, and Brazil.The 14 maps are engraved by the famous Hessel Gerritsz., official chart maker of the Dutch East India Company. These maps are the very best of the Americas to appear up to this time of publication (only 10 appeared in the first edition); they illustrate the Western Hemisphere,… Read More

[4], XVIII, 135, [9] pp.First edition of a beautifully illustrated and well produced work on education, offered by Étienne de Lafargue (1728-1795), a famous French author and member of various Academies of Sciences, Literature and Arts, to the young son of a high aristocrat. It praises the work of a teacher as well as parental education, while at the same time presenting sound instruction, wise lessons and advice to youth. First an extensive verse comprising four songs touches upon the duties of fathers, teachers, pupils and the advantage of education, using examples taken from history, mythology, classical authors, etc. Next wise lessons are presented in the form of fables, thirteen in total. And finally "Pieces Fugitives" teach elegant conversation and letter writing, including a dialogue between a ten and an eleven year old, all rendered in verse.In fine condition.l Cioranescu 35596; Cohen & De Ricci 545.

46 pp.First edition of the dissertation on natural history by the Elof Lagerlöf (d. 1827), dealing with the limits of dividing nature into three kingdoms. With the Swedish philosopher and naturalist Anders Lidbeck (1772-1829) as praeses. With some faint water stains and slightly soiled and creased, edges frayed.l Bibliographia zoologica I, p. 141; Pritzel, 5290; WorldCat (2 copies).

[4 = title, privilege, explanation] ll.First and only edition of a set of plates illustrating seven paintings by Gerard de Lairesse (1640-1711) in the council room of the former Court of Justice of Holland, Zeeland and West Friesland (now called the Lairesse room) in the Binnenhof in The Hague. The Court commissioned the paintings in 1684 and they were completed by 1688. They depict Aeneas carrying his father Anchises, an allegorical figure of Justice and five scenes from ancient Roman history, each representing a different virtue: Pompei (prudence), Scipio (moderation), Horatius Cocles (courage), Scipio again (steadfastness) and Papyrius (clemency). The printed image of each plate measures about 40 x 28 cm. In three cases the painting fills the plate; the other four paintings, being more or less square (about 23 x 23 cm to 29 x 29 cm in the plates), are depicted within the architectural context. Binding used. A very good copy.l Timmer, Gerard Lairesse (1942), p. 83, nr. 26; cf. Snoep, "Gerard… Read More

[50]; [8] double ll.Beautiful set of engraved illustrations by the Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver Gerard de Lairesse (1641-1711) in its first state, with the engravings bearing the imprint of N. Visscher. Almost all known copies of the present work show differences in contents and order of the plates. The present copy contains the large double-page engraved title-page, the engraved title-page of the appendix and more than 100 engraved illustrations of varying sizes on 56 double-page leaves, including 31 large double-page illustrations.Gerard de Laraisse was the son of the Liège painter Renier Lairesse and followed in his father's footsteps. He moved to Amsterdam in 1666 to paint in the atelier of the art dealer Uilenburg, before starting out on his own. He became one of the famous painters and engravers of the Dutch Golden Age, producing works in a classic style depicting historical, allegorical and mythological subjects. His works were greatly appreciated during his lifetime and long after… Read More