Search Results: Authors starting with V from Antiquariaat FORUM BV

333, [1 blank]; 303, [25] pp."Best" (Howgego) edition of an account of an imaginary voyage based on the story of the VOC ship Vergulde Draeck that wrecked on the coast of western Australia on 28 April 1656, first published, simultaneously in French and English, in five parts over the years 1675 to 1679. It was anonymously published by the French writer Denis Vairasse (ca. 1635-1700). Europeans still knew almost nothing about Australia when Vairasse first published his account and his wild stories caught the imagination of the public and went through many editions."In Vairasse's story, one of the boats sent out to seek help, returns with news of the discovery of a civilized country where its crew were imprisoned and then released by an armed force from Sporunde, a vassal state of the great kingdom called Sevarambia in the interior. The Sporundeans, who speak Dutch and Spanish as a result of prior European encounter, take the crew to their city where they are welcomed in friendship. On the return of the… Read More

[16], "349" [= 345], [7] pp. incl. integral frontispiece.Rare second Dutch edition of an extensively illustrated account of an imaginary voyage based on the story of the VOC ship Vergulde Draeck that wrecked on the coast of western Australia on 28 April 1656. It was anonymously published by the French writer Denis Vairasse (ca. 1635-1700). Europeans still knew almost nothing about Australia when Vairasse first published his account and his wild stories caught the imagination of the public and went through many editions. They give a good picture of what was then known and/or surmised about these little-explored regions and may have generated more enthusiasm for voyages of exploration than the more sober factual accounts."In Vairasse's story, one of the boats sent out to seek help, returns with news of the discovery of a civilized country where its crew were imprisoned and then released by an armed force from Sporunde, a vassal state of the great kingdom called Sevarambia in the interior. The… Read More

[2], 491, [1 blank], [4]; 788, [6] pp. textFirst edition of a beautiful series of illustrations of Egypt and classical Egyptian monuments, with the accompanying text volumes giving detailed information on each illustration. The illustrations show maps, costumes and views of both ancient and modern Egypt. The scientist and Egyptologist Girolamo Segato (1792-1836) began working on a new description and depiction of Egypt, selecting illustrations from the works of Denon, Grau and Rosellini, and also including his own original drawings. After his premature death his collaborator Domenico Valeriani finished the work and provided the accompanying texts.The text and plates volumes with marginal foxing throughout, minor except in the preliminary leaves. Otherwise in good condition. The binding slightly rubbed along the extremities, damage to the upper right corner of the first plates volume, resulting in a stain on the front endpapers, and the upper half of the sides on the second plate volume faded,… Read More

125, [3 blank] pp.First edition of an important Jesuit work, publishing for the first time the annual letters of 1589 and 1590 reporting on the situation in Japan, written by the Jesuit missionaries Alessandro Valignano in "Cansuca" (Katsusa in Kyushu) on 7 October 1589 (pp. 3-42), and Luís Fróis in Nagasaki on 12 October 1590 (pp. 43-125). They provide valuable information on the Jesuit missions in Japan and elsewhere in Asia as well as on the daily life, customs and political situation. This includes the establishment and development of Jesuit residences, churches and colleges, along with other activities, in Katsusa, Arima, Omura, Nagasaki, Bungo and many other cities and regions. Valignano wrote from the newly established Jesuit college at Katsusa, where in the following year he brought in a printing press from Macao and set up the first Jesuit printing office in Japan, publishing its first efforts in 1591.The Portuguese Jesuit missionary Luís Fróis (1532?-1597) joined the Jesuits and worked… Read More

[20], 218, [12], [2 blank]; [4], 236, [12]; [4], 244, [13], [1 blank]; [6], 231, [17] pp.First edition in German of Pietro della Valle's deservedly famous narrative of his travels in the Middle East, with an excellent account of Muscat and the Arabian Gulf and reference to Dibba. Della Valle arrived in Istanbul in August 1614, spending a year to explore the city. He continued to Rhodes, Alexandria, Rosetta, Cairo, crossing the Sinai desert to Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. From there he proceeded to Isfahan (Iran) to meet the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I. He sojourned in Persia until early 1623, witnessing and commenting on the escalating conflict between Shah Abbas and the Portuguese empire. By way of India he sailed for Muscat in January 1623, from where crossed the Arabian Gulf to Basra, continuing overland to Aleppo, arriving in Europe in 1626. "Della Valle displayed excellent narrative and descriptive skills, powers of acute observation, and a genuinely scholarly breadth of learning."… Read More

187, [1 blank]; [4], 186, [2 blank]; [4], 185, [11] pp.Volumes 4, 5 and 6 of the first Dutch edition (the first illustrated edition in any language) of Pietro della Valle's account of his travels in Turkey, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Iraq, Persia (Iran) and India. Della Valle, an Italian nobleman, sailed from Venice in 1614 to Istanbul, where he arrived in August 1614, visiting Strofades and Chios en route. He spent a year exploring Istanbul then continued to Rhodes, Alexandria, Rosetta, Cairo, crossing the Sinai desert to Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. Rather than return to Istanbul, Della Valle decided at this point to travel to Persia to meet the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I. He travelled with the next caravan to Baghdad, where he married Ma'ani-Jowayri, daughter of a Nestorian Catholic father and an Armenian mother, and together they continued through snow-covered Kurdistan to Isfahan (Persia), which they reached in March 1617. Della Valle sojourned in Persia until early 1623, witnessing and… Read More

First Dutch edition, the first one to be illustrated, of Pietro della Valle's account of his travels in Turkey, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Iraq, Persia (Iran) and India. Della Valle, an Italian nobleman, sailed from Venice in 1614 to Istanbul, where he arrived in August 1614. He spent a year exploring the city and continued to Rhodes, Alexandria, Rosetta, Cairo, crossing the Sinai desert to Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. Rather than return to Istanbul, Della Valle decided at this point to travel to Persia to meet the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I. He travelled with the next caravan to Baghdad, where he married Ma'ani-Jowayri, daughter of a Nestorian Catholic father and an Armenian mother, and together they continued through snow-covered Kurdistan to Isfahan (Persia), which they reached in March 1617. Della Valle sojourned in Persia until early 1623, witnessing and commenting on the escalating conflict between Shah Abbas and the Portuguese empire. He "displayed excellent narrative and descriptive… Read More

[36], 456; [6], 457-489, [17] pp.Second German edition of Curiositez de la nature et de l'art sur la végétation (Paris, 1705) by Pierre Le Lorrain de Vallemont, translated into German by Ferdinand Ludwig von Breßler und Aschenburg. De Vallemont (1649-1721) deals with many aspects of gardening and agronomy, including advice on cultivating grain, fruits, trees, but also on how to make an estate profitable. The work became very popular and went through numerous editions.The second work, with a half-title following p. 456, is a German translation of L'art ou la Maniere particuliere & seure de tailler les arbres fruitiers (Amsterdam, 1697). The author of the preface states that it was written by a Liebhaber and translated into German, but it is most likely an excerpt from Jean de La Quintinye's work on pruning of the same title.With the bookplate of C. Otto G. Wibom on paste-down. Binding slightly soiled, otherwise in very good condition.l Cf. Arnold Arboretum, p. 714; Brunet V, col. 1061; Graesse VI,… Read More

[2], XIV, [2], 365, [1 blank], [1], [1 blank]; [2, 374, [2], 6 pp.First edition of a work on mineralogy by the French botanist and naturalist Jacques-Christophe Valmont de Bomare (1731-1807). It opens with a preface, a table, and an introduction to mineralogy. The main text treats the different classes of minerals: water, earth, sand, (precious) stones, salts, pyrites, half metals, metals, flammable substances and fossils, each covering different genera and species. The last section deals with fossils, including examples of petrified plants and animals, petrified imprints of plants and animals, also covering human fossils. As mentioned on the title-page, included at the end of the second volume is a brief dictionary.With a bookplate on paste-down. With some stains. Bindings rubbed along the extremities. Overall in good condition.l Schuh II 4744; Ward 2218.

40, [10], 143, [19], 163-203, [1 blank]; [12], 48 pp.Ad 1: Rare third edition of Morgagni's expanded version of Valsalva's important De aure humana. "Valsalva's treatise is not only a worthy companion to Duverney's work but far surpasses it in richness of content and in a rare combination of precision and conciseness. The treatise deals with the anatomy and physiology of the organ of hearing and also contains chapters on the pathology of the ear" (Politzer).The Italian anatomist Antonio Maria Valsalva (1666-1723) was "without doubt, the most eminent scientist of the transitional period from the 17th to the 18th century" (Politzer) and his specialty was the anatomy of the ear. The treatise, first published in Bologna in 1704, was republished by Valsalva's pupil, Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771), who added his own work De aure humani tractatus, along with the anatomical letters that constitute an extensive commentary on Valsalva’s work. The preface includes the first and most important biography… Read More

[200] ll.Third (?) edition of a rare 16th-century Dutch devotional work written by Floris van Haarlem, Carthusian prior at Louvain and edited by the Antwerp priest Simon van Planen. With a dedicatory letter to Gheraert Heerman, rector and confessor of the Roman Catholic monasteries at Leiden, dated Louvain, 2 April 1542. The work itself is divided into four treatises, with an extensive index. The colophon at the end of the work is cut off, but the privilege at the end is granted to Heyndrick Peetersen and dated 17 January 1546. Because an edition of 1546 is unrecorded, it seems likely that this is the edition published in 1547. Other edition were published by Peetersen van Middelburg in 1542, 1544 and 1552, followed by two other editions in 1564. A Latin translation by Nicolaus Zegerus appeared in 1656 as Via vitae, libellus plane aureus,… Only a few copies of the several editions are known.With library stamp of "St. Hugh's, Parkminster" and manuscript owner's inscription entry of "Pieter Loontjens,… Read More

[4], 197 ll.First Dutch edition of Otto van Passau's devotional work (dated 20 days after the original German edition), the first Dutch book extensively illustrated with woodcuts. The Gouda Dialogus Creaturarum was published a month or two later, in June 1480. Each of the 24 chapters opens with a woodcut illustration, showing a pious woman (the loving soul) taking advice from a king (the 24 elders of the Apocalypse). In each chapter one of 24 biblical wise men (the elders of the Apocalypse) teaches the soul how to live as a good Christian. Our copy is richly and beautifully adorned with decorated initials supplied by hand and is rubricated throughout. The work was immensely popular and there are many manuscripts and early editions in both German and Dutch. Our first edition of the Dutch translation is of the utmost importance for the history of the text: serving as the source for all subsequent Dutch editions (as well as manuscripts). Some library stamps at foot of first leaf. In very good condition,… Read More

126; [8], 56, 56, 24, [2]; [14], 153, [1 blank]; [4], 152, 116 pp.Ad 1: Rare second Dutch translation of a highly important and adventurous narrative, including an account of the first recorded non-Islamic visitor to Mecca. This translation was made by Felix van Sambix the younger based on the German translation of the Italian original (the Itinerario) made by Hieronymus Megiser. The present edition includes for the first time several full-page engravings, for example one showing a 15th-century battle against camel-riding Arabs and another depicting a Sati ritual. "Varthema's Itinerario, ..., had an enormous impact at the time, and in some respects determined the course of European expansion towards the Orient" (Howgego), making it one of the most important Middle Eastern and Asian travel stories in history.Ad 2 (bound before ad 1): First and only edition of the illustrated Dutch translation of Roe's journal as edited by Samuel Purchas with new illustrations made for it, describing his stay at the… Read More

LXXXV, [1 blank], 121, [3] pp.Ludovico di Varthema (ca. 1468-1517) was one of the first Europeans to visit the cities of Mecca and Medina and to travel as far east as India and the East Indies, whose travel account survived. Varthema was an Italian traveller and author. He probably came from Bologna or possibly Rome and he might have been a soldier in the papal forces, but not much is known about his early life. Due to Varthema writing and later publishing his travel account, much more is known about where he spent his later life. In 1802, he sailed from Venice via Cairo in Egypt to Damascus in Syria, where he embarked upon his first remarkable journey. He joined a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, being one of the first Europeans to enter these holy cities, and then continued south through the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen. From Aden in Yemen he sailed to several cities on the coast of Somalia before sailing along the coast of Oman to Ormuz, Iran and subsequently travelling inland across Persia to IndiaAn… Read More

[10], 466, [6] ll.First English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous account of travels to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Ethiopia, India and the East Indies: a highly important and adventurous narrative including his 1503 visit to Mecca and Medina, the first recorded visit of a European (probably of any non-Muslim) to the Islamic holy cities. "Varthema's Itinerario, first published in 1510, had an enormous impact at the time, and in some respects determined the course of European expansion towards the Orient" (Howgego). It is here combined with various other travel accounts, including some taken from a collection by d'Anghiera. Varthema's account became a bestseller as soon as it appeared in 1510 and went through about twenty editions in various languages in the next fifty years. It certainly provided many Europeans with their first glimpse of Islamic culture and of non-European cultures in general.With a contemporary manuscript table of contents and an occasional marginal manuscript note in the same… Read More

14, 210, [1 blank], 7, 190 pp.An important first-hand account of relations between the Porte and central Europe as well as the wider political events during the second half of the 18th century. Written in Turkish (set in a Naskh Arabic type) by the Baghdad-born diplomat Ahmed Vasif Effendi and also known as "Vasif Tarihi" ("Vasif’s History"), it forms one of the most important works of Ottoman political history for the period between 1754 and 1774, when the author actively participated in the world of diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire, on the Balkans, in Russia and in Vienna. Vasif was known for his quick temper and was later described by the German orientalist Franz Babinger as "vain, stingy, jealous, and excessively vicious" (cf. p. 336). His text was left unfinished after a dispute with the Istanbul-based press of Rasid Efendi, which Vasif himself had helped establish, and it was completed by Sadullah Enveri (d. 1794), who himself had participated in the military events described. He is remembered… Read More

[1], [1 blank], [18], 216; [1], [1 blank], [14], "180" [=188], [34] pp.First edition of Vauban's treatises on siegecraft and military mining. Of all the 17th- and 18th-century books "on military technology, no works had greater influence or enjoyed greater prestige than those of Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the great military engineer of the reign of Louis XIV" (Guerlac). Although a highly practical man and not a theoretician, Vauban had written down the secrets of his success in the building and capturing of fortresses between 1669 and 1704. Vauban's strategic superiority could only remain if this information was kept secret, so his texts circulated only within a very select circle. After Vauban's death they were leaked. "By the time the treatises became available, Vauban's early readers must have been ready to believe that the text finally being made public did in fact contain incredible military secrets and have the power to make nations invincible. No other treatise of siegecraft had been… Read More

[2], 57, [1 blank] pp.Early edition of a classic account of the three earliest Dutch exploration voyages (1594, 1595, 1596) in search of a northeast passage to China, by Willem Barentsz. Two of the voyages were in company with Jan Huygen van Linschoten. Gerrit de Veer, the author of this book and close friend of Willem Baretsz., had taken part in the second and third voyage. The third voyage, with the well-known wintering on Nova Zembla, is by far the most famous and ranks among the greatest in the annals of Polar exploration.Faint waterstain in the upper right corner, some thumbing and a couple small stains; a good copy.l Tiele, Bibl. 1132; Tiele, Mém. p. 114; Howego, to 1800, B21.

[1] leaf.Propaganda broadside with an allegorical print admonishing the inhabitants of the Dutch Republic to forgive and forget their religious quarrels and disputes, especially those that arose between the Arminians and the Gomarists during the Twelve-Years’ Truce (1609-1621) and to foster concord again. Some copies have four long verses at the foot explaining the text. They are signed with the name and motto of the author “J. Starter” and “gonst baerd nijd”. It’s ironic that Starter, Van de Velde or Amelisz. chose to use an image of book-burning as his primary illustration to invoke and symbolize tolerance and reconciliation! The artist of the engraved plate is the famous Jan van de Velde (II) (1593-1641), painter, draughtsman and engraver. He is the son of the Flemish calligrapher Jan van de Velde and the father of the still life painter Jan van de Velde (III).Without the lower half of the broadside (the explanatory text), but it is lacking in many copies: in the Rijksmuseum copy, the… Read More

[80] pp.Extremely rare first (and only early) edition of an important songbook, with laudatory poems and songs about the river Amstel, which flowed into the IJ, an inlet of the Zuiderzee (now the IJselmeer) at Amsterdam. The surroundings and banks of the river were the favourite and beloved walking area for the city’s residents for centuries. It is the first Dutch literary work devoted to a river (one of the few devoted to any feature of the natural landscape) and was ahead of its time in its emphasis on the close bond between people and their natural environment. It influenced Antonides, De Ystroom (Amsterdam, 1671). The engraving of nine naked nymphs about to push and drag the naked author into the water illustrates a passage on B8v-C2v, based in part on the ancient Greek story of Hylas’s abduction by water nymphs (in both, the protagonist visits a fantastic underwater world). Of considerable interest to the linguist or literary analyst are the “Aan-merckinghe op eenighe duystere woorden” (notes… Read More