Search Results: Titles starting with F from Asher Rare Books

Scarce important expedition-report. Plates 2-3 (of volume V) not present as in most copies. "The expedition was a private undertaking by Römer and Schaudinn, in the steamer Helgoland, June-Sept. 1898, to carry out zoological research in the waters off Svalbard and along the Murman coast. These published results, based on the expedition collections and observations, and on previously published arctic literature, seek (1) to catalogue all known arctic faunal forms, with literature references, (2) to compare the fauna within various arctic regions, in respect to the problem of circumpolarity, and (3) to compare arctic with antarctic forms"(Arctic Bibliography 4809). The expedition also had significance from a geographical standpoint as a number of corrections and additions to the map of Svalbard were made. A good set.l Arctic Bibliography 4809 lists all the separate monographs.

364, [4] pp.Venice school edition of Aesop's fables with parallel text in Greek and Latin. The book is neatly printed and the clear Greek type has relatively few ligatures. Besides the life of Aesop and Aesop's fables, the book contains several collections of fables and single fables by other authors (pp. 232-364): [Ignatius von Nicaea], Gabriae Graeci fabellae (often added to the Aesop canon); Aphthonius, Excercitamentis de fabula; Philostratus, De fabula; pseudo Homer, Batrachomyomachia (the battle of frogs and mice, a parody of Homer's Iliad); Musaeus, De Ero & Leandro (Hero and Leander; Agapetus, De officio regis; Hippocrates, Ius iurandum (the Hippocratic oath!), and [Theodorus Prodromus], Galeomnomachia (the battle between the cats and the mice), the last two in Greek only. The book ends with a 4-page index and the colophon.With a few contemporary manuscript notes in brown ink. With some marginal worm holes, mostly in the gutter of quires r and s, and some mostly marginal water stains, more… Read More

288; 288; 288; 288, XXI, (3 blank) pp.First and only edition of an extremely rare collection of fables, published at Lyon and beautifully illustrated by contemporary Lyon artists. Alexis Rousset, born in 1798 at Oulins, Rhône, had settled at Lyon where he worked as a secretary to a pharmacist, which left him enough free hours to devote himself to literature. The present collection of fables, freely reworked in verse after the fables of Aesop, La Fontaine and other sources, was probably published in parts over a period of time, and was more or less a collective Lyon undertaking. This rich and very attractive art manifestation from Lyon was ignored by Vicaire and other Paris bibliographers, but it certainly deserves to be "discovered" and appointed its own firm and original place within fable literature and especially within fable illustration.Very fine set.l Not in Vicaire; not in Fabula Docet, Anne Stevinson Hobbs, or The Fox and the Grapes, Checklist Aesopic Fables Pierpont Morgan Library.

[4], XLVIII, 256; [4], 352 pp.Apparently a co-edition with another title-page of the edition Lausanne, J. Pierre Heubach, 1772 (Bodemann, 156.1 who considers this a ‘Neuausgabe’ of the Coste redaction; cf. also the caption on the frontispiece for vol. 2: ‘a Lausanne chez J.P. Heubach’). Pierre Coste (1688-1747) was a Swiss theologian and translator who also edited the Fables of De la Fontaine.Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695) is one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century, known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions. After a long period of royal suspicion, he was admitted to the French Academy and his reputation in France has never faded since. His Fables unquestionably represent the peak of La Fontaine’s achievement. The first six books, of the "Fables choisies", known as the "premier recueil" (first collection), were published in 1668. The 124 fables were in the main adapted from the classical… Read More

[18], 232; [12], 228 pp.Rare (first and only?) Amsterdam edition in the original French, of 60 moral and political fables, intended for the education of young princes. They were written by Gabriel Audin, Prior of Termes or Thermes (in the French Basque, near Andorra) and published at Paris in 1648. Antoine Augustin Bruzen de La Martiniere (1662-1746) appears to have prepared a new edition in 1720, intended for the education of the thirteen-year-old Louis, Prince of Asturias (1707-1724), who was to be King of Spain for a few months in 1724, but that edition seems to have remained unpublished or barely published: one or two copies may survive and the Bibliotheque Nationale has a loose title-page that can be seen on Gallica, with the Amsterdam imprint of Jean [III] Pauli, 1620, who did publish a Dutch translation in 1722. The present edition may be a 1754 reissue of the 1720 edition. It retains the dedication to the Prince, even though he died thirty years before it was issued, as well as his 1720… Read More

[2], XVI, 190, [2], VI, 3-191 pp.First edition of this lovely printed collection of the famous ‘100 (Aesop) fables’ , originally translated in elegant Latin verses by Gabriel Faerno (1563), and now translated into English and French verses by Claude Du Bosc and Charles Perrault.Pope Pius IV, convinced that reading the fables of Aesop was of great use in forming the morals of young children, commissioned Gabriel Faerno, whom he knew as an excellent poet as well as a man with a taste for elegant and beautiful Latinity, to versify these fables so that children might learn, at the same time and from the same book, both moral and linguistic purity. Faerno (1510-1561), a scrupulous scholar and Latin poet from Cremona, has been called a second Phaedrus, by reason of the excellent style of his Fables, though he never saw Phaedrus, who did not come to our knowledge till above thirty years after his death.The French translation by Perrault had been published in 1699 for the first time.With ownership’s… Read More

[2], 144, [2] pp.Very rare Swedish edition of a selection of translations and imitations of fables by German authors, by the French writer and linguist Jonchère. Parts of the book were originally published in 1812 as Fables traduites ou imitées de l'allemand in Paris, Lübeck and Hamburg, with a second expanded edition appearing in Paris in 1815, here reprinted in Stockholm.Binding very slightly rubbed along the extremities, and a few specks on the boards, but otherwise in very good condition.l Bihl & Epting, Bibliographie französischer Übersetzungen aus dem Deutschen (1487-1944) I, 1223-1224 (1812 & 1815 editions); Hammar, Manuels de français publiés à l'usage des Suédois de 1808 à 1905, p. 101; WorldCat (2 copies); for the author: Quérard, La france littéraire IV, p. 454.

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

158, [2] pp.Rare second(?) edition (one of three dated "1632") of a popular Greek and Latin school book, edited by the famous Dutch neo-Latin poet, humanist and Leiden Professor of Greek, Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655), with 47 beautiful woodcut illustrations by Christoffel van Sichem II. Aesop's fables were prescribed by the States of Holland in the Hollandsche schoolordre of 1625 as one of the books to be read in the 3rd class. Christoffel van Sichem II (ca. 1577-1658), the second of several woodcut artists in that family, studied with Jacques de Gheyn and was one of the leading Dutch book illustrators in the first half of the 17th century. Although the book has no prize certificate or inscription and no owner's name, the coat-of-arms of the city of Amersfoort on the binding of a school book strongly suggests a prize binding for a student at the Amersfoort Latin school. With an occasional contemporary manuscript note in Greek and Latin. With a small dark stain in the lower inside corner of the foot… Read More

[25], [1 blank], 342, 349-513, [32], [1 blank] pp.Vögelin’s 1570 Aesop edition, a nearly page for page (often line for line) reprint of his own important 1564 edition, including one of the most extensive collections of Aesop fables to that date, following but augmenting Camerarius’s 1544 Leipzig edition. It contains more than 500 fables collected by the humanist classical scholar Joachim Camerarius (Bamberg 1500 - Leipzig 1574) who played a decisive role in the German Reformation, helped Philip Melanchthon with the composition of the famous Augsburg Confession, and published editions of many classical authors. The preface and printer’s note originally copied the 1564 date from the 1564 edition, but in the latter a correction slip changed the date to 1570. One can see in the present copy that the slip was present, but it has fallen off. Many copies lack the last printed leaf, present here, containing only the colophon.Lacking the final blank leaf. Somewhat browned, the title-page thumbed and the… Read More

[12], 752, [48]; [4], 356 pp.Ad 1: Phaedrus’s Fables in the original Latin verse (adapted from Aesop’s Greek prose), here in the first edition to include the incredibly extensive annotations, with abundant historical, moral and philological notes and explanations by Daniel Hartnack (1642-1708; also known as David Maphanafus), a professor and rector of the Latin Schools of Frankfurt a.d. Oder, Erfurt, Bremen and Altona. He also edited and translated several other classical Latin authors. Ad 2: The first edition of Hartneck’s complementary edition of Paedrus’s Fables where he has broken up each story into words and phrases that he presents with a German translation phrase by phrase or word by word, so that each sentence jumps back and forth between Latin and German, again with each fable followed by extensive comments and notes. He follows these fables with German prose “imitations” of Phaedrus’s fables and Danzet’s Latin prose paraphrases of the Latin verses in ad 1. The Latin text in the first… Read More

347, [3, 1 blank] pp.Rare edition of a very popular introduction to arithmetic’s with numerous practical applications and at the end a section on clocks (pp. 318-344) titled “Zugab etwelcher Zahlen zu unterschiedlichen Uhren”. Unobtrusive water stain on title and first leaves; slightly browned in places. Very rare edition of a popular work on arithmetic’s and clocks.l Not in Honeyman; Poggendorf; WorldCat.

VIII, 403 pp.Rare first edition of the translation in Spanish (Catalan) from the Latin original, the first official Pharmacopoeia Matritensis by the Collegio de Farmaceuticos, published in 1739. Only in the 18th century , during the reign of the Bourbons, did all the Spanish pharmacopoeias unify into a single pharmacopoeia common to the whole of the Kingdom of Spain, with the publication, in 1794 , of the Pharmacopoea Hispana.A little worn around the edges, otherwise in good condition.l WorldCat (6 copies); not in Wellcome.

[32], 288, [2] pp.Second edition of the Lisbon Pharmacopoeia composed by Manoel Joaquim Henriques Paiva (1752-1829), professor in the faculty of philosophy at the famous Coimbra University. The first edition was published in 1785. In 1807 followed his Farmacopeia naval ou colecção dos medicamentos simples e compostos que cumpre haver nas boticas dos navios, a pharmacopoeia for use on the Portuguese ships.With some contemporary annotations. Title-page somewhat soiled, otherwise in very good condition.l Blake, p. 336 (1785 edition); not in Wellcome.

[4], 8 pp.Rare first and only edition of this thesis defended by Petrus Magnus Acksell on 13 June 1823 in the Auditorium Botanicum of the University of Uppsala, presided over by the famous Uppsala professor Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), who undoubtedly deserves much of the credit for this short text on the fauna of China, including a catalogue of the principal mammals (including tigers), birds (including falcons), fish (including Asian carp), amphibians, insects and molluscs native to China.Very good, spotless copy.l L.C. Rookmaker & I. Svanberg, “Bibliography of Carl Peter Thunberg”, in: Svenska Linnésällskapets årsskrift, 1992-1993/Yearbook Sw. Linnaeus Soc. (1994), pp. 7-72, at p. 65, no. 493.

258, [6] pp.One of the later editions of the Laudi redaction and translation of the Aesop fables in Italian prose augmented with many fables by others, to a total of 400, only 40 of which are here illustrated with rather ‘primitive’ woodcuts in a frame, inspired by the original woodcuts for the first Landi editions of 1581 and 1585. Each fable is followed by a ‘Sentenza della favole’.In good condition.l Cf. Bodemann 52.(1-)4.

[4], 157, [16] pp.First edition of the best-known work of the famous Spanish neo-classical poet Tomás de Iriarte (or Yriarte) y Oropesa (1750-1791). His name is most intimately associated with the present Fábulas literarias (1782), composed in a great variety of metres, and known for its humorous and satirical attacks on literary men and methods, many aimed at Juan Pablo Forner (1756-1797). R. Merit Cow writes: “The appearance of the literary fables of Tomas de Iriatre definitely established him as the great literary arbiter of his day … With the publication of his collection of poetry, his dominance of the literary scene ... was now hailed from all sides. He was considered from this time forth one of the first, if not the first.” Schopenhauer characterizes the poems as the “allerliebsten litterarischen Fabeln” (Parega, p. 255).With the owner’s inscription “Catherine de Courlande” on the title-page: Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna (1781-1839), Princess of Courland (western Latvia)… Read More

[8], 132 pp.First German edition of the first Dutch fortification manual, with woodcut illustrations, by Simon Stevin (1548-1620), which inaugurated a new era in the history of siege warfare. It professionalized military engineering, introducing many original ideas and presenting them in lucid vernacular language. The present first German translation made his work accessible to an international audience for the first time (though translations had already circulated in manuscript) and was followed by a French translation in Stevin's collected mathematical works in 1634. In part through the influence of the present manual, the German-language classics of fortification, such as Adam Freitag's continued to develop the Dutch school of fortification.The 1594 first edition was illustrated by woodcuts on the integral leaves, but for the present edition seven of the woodcut figures were instead printed separately and inserted as 2 folding plates and 3 smaller slips. These are lacking in the present copy,… Read More

48, [1] pp.This rare report contains information on the mission's activities, expenditure and curriculum, and extensive lists of names (in Tamil and English) of all the instructors and students who have attended this Presbyterian Seminary, along with the years in which they entered and left the Seminary and their current place of residence in Ceylon.The only institutional copy we can trace is held in the William Smith Morton Library at the Union Presbyterian Seminary (Richmond, VA).With an inscription in ink: "Purchased by Rev. Ira Pierce", and with an old collection and deaccession stamp of the Andover Theological Library, and "Jaffna" in blue pencil, all on the front wrapper. With another Andover Theological Library deaccession stamp on the verso of the title-page. The wrappers are somewhat darkened and lightly foxed, the spine is slightly damaged, the top corners of the first few leaves are somewhat frayed, very slightly browned throughout. Overall in very good condition.l WorldCat 884815728 (1 copy).

[8], 57, [2] pp.First and only edition of the collected compositions by the Western-schooled Indian professor of musicology Raja Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840-1914). He was the leading specialist of his time in Indian music, and studied his native Indian musical tradition with the latest theoretical knowledge. This made him a pioneer in the introduction of traditional Indian music into modern times and in making it accessible to Western audiences. He founded the Bengal Music School and Bengal Academy of Music that operated under the Western standard.In the present work Tagore used his knowledge of Western music to present 50 Indian tunes in the European system of notation, accompanied by the English translation of the lyrics, resulting in 59 pages of printed music. These 50 "tunes" were all composed by the author himself on different occasions. Tagore published the work himself and dedicated it to Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The binding is interesting: the family crest on the front… Read More