Search Results: Titles starting with A from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

Paris: J.Borel, 1565. Contemporary limp vellum (soiled, small lacunae on spine), old title label (perished), evidence of four pigskin ties. First Edition. This is the scholar, lawyer and book collector's first book. These forty essays treat ancient and medieval texts and concern Druids, law, medicine, oaths, grammar and theater. They present variant readings, emendations and corrections based on manuscripts in his own library and in those of other bibliophiles. Lyonese printer Claude Senneton is a dedicatee. In original condition, early 18th-century inscription on the front pastedown. ¶Haag, La France protestante IX: 255-57; Cioranesco 17652; see Sandys' A History of Classical Scholarship II: 192.

Paris: F. Targa, 1627. 18th-century gilt-ruled glazed tan calf (joints cracked), vertical gilt-lettered spine label, edges marbled blue. First Edition - a landmark. Naudé frames the universal library in both scope and viewpoints. He addresses acquisitions, the care of books, binding styles, bibliography, the need for author and subject catalogs and the bedrock importance of public access.             He composed this in his mid-twenties. He served as librarian of, in turn, Cardinals Bagni and Barberini, parliamentary président de Mesmes (the present dedicatee), Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and, lastly, Queen Christina. Under Naudé's care, Mazarin's collection grew to over 40,000 volumes and became the first public library in France. A good copy, bookplates of John Arthur Brooke and Michel Dubos. ¶De l'argile au nuage: une archéologie des catalogues. Exposition...13.III-13.V.2015 edd. Barbier et al. 27 & passim; Balsamo, La Bibliografia 51-60; Samurin, Geschichte der… Read More

[France], 1720. Contemporary gilt brown morocco by the Boyet workshop, fillet-and-dot border around a rich frame of a large fan and volute roll and repetitions of partly pointillé sprays embellished with small stars and fleurs-de-lys, gilt spine with pointillé and foliage decoration, gilt board edges, gilt turn-ins (roulette E), pink silk pastedowns and marbled free endpapers, all edges gilt over marbling, red silk marker. In a dark blue morocco pull-off box (Riviere & Son). FORTY-SIX FULL-PAGE GRAY WASH DRAWINGS OF FINGERSPELLING AND BODY MOVEMENT SIGNS IN TWO SERIES REPRESENTING SPANISH AND FRENCH MANUAL ALPHABETS. Twenty-four illustrations show a single hand, twelve both hands, and ten letters in the French alphabet are demonstrated by men in contemporary dress (in half-, three-quarter- or full-figure). All drawings and the corresponding alphabet letters are enclosed in decorative gray wash cartouches, as are the main title, the half-title and the seventeen-line preface. Nine drawings are… Read More

Paris: [A.-C. Egron for] Chaise jeune, 1805. Contemporary gilt-ruled straight-grained glazed red morocco (Tessier), flat spine gilt-ruled and lettered, all edges gilt, green silk marker.             The first appearance of this elegant large format art and literary almanac, which combines essays on Apollo and the nine muses with contemporary verse and glowing comparisons of Napoleon to Apollo. The editor and artist, Louis Lafitte (1770-1828), dedicated this inaugural issue to Empress Joséphine, the great patron of the arts for whom he painted a room at Malmaison. The binder, Tessier, worked for the duc d'Orléans before the Revolution and after the Restoration: under Napoleon he executed imperial commissions. In excellent condition, bookplate of Michel Wittock. ¶Fleury, Catalogue d'une jolie petite collection d'almanachs illustrés (1908) 43 (?lacking a plate); see Grand-Carteret's Les Almanachs français 1508 (1807 only) and Monglond's La France révolutionnaire et impériale VII: 1359 (1807… Read More

Paris: J. Bade van Assche (Badius Ascensius), 1517. Mid-18th-century gilt-ruled tan calf (slightly stained, three small worm holes), flat spine gilt à la grotesque and gilt red morocco label, red silk marker.             First Edition, one of the earliest examples of medieval allegorical poetry. On the verge of adulthood, Archithrenius tours the vices and follies of man, e.g., the Palace of Ambition, the Hill of Presumption and the battlefield of Largesse and Avarice. In the House of Venus, every detail of the female body is described. In the Land of Gluttony, he encounters abusers of wine and food and discusses banquet settings and cooking techniques.            "Of great interest to the social historian" (Lewis), his sojourn with students at Paris (chap. III) realistically paints the squalor, hunger and desperation of young scholars just as the formal University is beginning to take shape. He finally turns to Nature, who introduces him to a beautiful maiden, Moderation, whom he weds.… Read More

Naples: T. Longo, 1604. Contemporary limp vellum (early signature on the rear panel), flat spine with a contemporary manuscript title. First Edition of this book of exchange for the Italian peninsula and its main trading partners. It was a vital reference through mid-century for merchants whose business complexities rendered conversion tables inadequate. Lando denominated the coins in circulation in the eight leading commercial cities in Italy and paired these coins in turn with coins issued by ten to twenty foreign cities, like Nürnberg, Frankfurt, Antwerp and London. He then illustrated the exchange rate for every pairing through two calculations, one in each direction, enabling traders to do the math themselves. A nice copy (short clean split in five blank margins). ¶Hoock & Jeannin, Ars mercatoria: Handbücher und Traktate...1470-1820 II/L8.1 & III: 20; Riccardi, Biblioteca matematica italiana I(2): 14-15 "Raro"; no printing in the BL or Einaudi.

Loano: Francesco Castello, 1619. Gilt red morocco (V. Krafft), gilt outer and inner rectangles, gilt corner fleurons, spine and title gilt, all edges gilt, green silk marker. Only Edition: a dialog on fencing between master and student in three parts. The first treats the art and sport, discusses masters at arms, introduces long and short sword and describes the basic strokes. The second details the strategy, geometry, mathematics and maneuvers of offense and defense, noting that the thrust now dominates and the cut has been abandoned. The final part treats the deadliest mode, mounted fencing. Here the horse's impetus gives force to the sword and the opponent must be kept on the right hand and ahead - never behind. Antonio Alfieri (1653) copied Gaiani verbatim. I have found two copies in the U.S. In good condition. ¶Anglo, The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe passim; Anglo, "How to Kill a Man at your Ease" in Chivalry in the Renaissance ed. Anglo 12; Ayala, Bibliografia militare-italiana 198;… Read More

Strassburg: J. Cammerlander, 1539. Early 20th-century pastepaper over stiff boards (rubbed, spine chipped).            ILLUSTRATED VERNACULAR MIRROR OF PRINCES, SATIRIZING A HOST OF TRADES AND STATIONS IN SOCIETY. The woodcuts show courtiers and criminals, artisans and aristocrats, cooks and chancellors.            Shaped by the author's long service to the Prince Elector of Pfalz, the poem recasts the fable of the wolf and the lamb to highlight the injustice of poverty. Court Life inspired Hans Sachs, Protestant interpretations of Reynard the Fox and the proverb collections of Franck, Lehmann, Schottel and Eyring             THIS IS THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF SEVENTY-EIGHT LINES OF NEW TEXT ON CROSSBOWMEN and the cruelties of war by an unknown poet. Only half of the eight printings to 1620 are held in U.S. libraries. In good condition, seven lower margins partly or wholly untrimmed. ¶Morsheim, Spiegel des Regiments ed. Goedeke 32,A.b; Kessler, Johann von Morsheims Spiegel des… Read More

Milan: L. Monza for A. Petrarca, 1649. Contemporary vellum over thin wooden boards, later manuscript spine title, green edges. Only Edition of this illustrated festival book. It was issued in preparation for the entry into Milan on 30 May 1649 of Maria Anna of Austria on her way to Spain to marry her uncle, King Philip IV. The portraits are set in an elaborate etched cartouche of banderoles, gristlework and imperial insignia. In excellent condition (endleaves browned). ¶Praz, Studies in 17th-Century Imagery 443 & 568 ("Devices described, without figures"); Daly & Dimler, Corpus librorum emblematum: The Jesuit Series J.1109; Sommervogel-deBacker, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus VI: 115,1.