Search Results: Titles starting with G from Asher Rare Books

[4], 394, [2] pp.Very rare copy of an important work for the history of the German Jews in the age of Emancipation. One of the many editions of these Gebete, which are translated from the Hebrew, the chief work of Isaac Euchel, one of the most important German jews of the Enlightenment. The original edition of the Gebete appeared in 1786 in Königsberg (other editions: Vienna, 1790-98; there exists also a 'Zweite Auflage': Berlin 1799). Euchel has translated the original and until then obscure old Hebrew Book of prayers for German and Polish Jews. It contains prayers for all occasions and for all times of the day, including songs and psalms. After the prayers follows "Massecheth Aboth", in 6 parts, teaching the Jewish laws and the rules for a virtuous life. In the preface the publisher explains that the first edition of this excellent translation from the Hebrew is long since sold out. This and the fact that many Israelites, especially the women, do not have suficient knowledge of the Hebrew… Read More

458 pp.Rare later edition of the German translation by Isaac Abraham Euchel of a Hebrew prayerbook for German and Polish Jews. It is Euchel's chief work, who was one of the most important German jews of the Enlightenment. The original edition of the Gebete appeared in 1786 in Königsberg (other editions: Vienna, 1790-98; there exists also a "Zweite Auflage": Berlin 1799). Euchel has translated the original - and until then obscure - old Hebrew book of prayers for German and Polish Jews. It contains prayers for all occasions and for all times of the day, including songs and psalms. After the prayers follows "Massecheth Aboth", in 6 parts, teaching the Jewish laws and the rules for a virtuous life. In the preface the publisher explains that the first edition of this excellent translation from the Hebrew is long since sold out. This and the fact that many Israelites, especially the women, do not have suficient knowledge of the Hebrew language, and that also many Christians visit the Synagoge, which by… Read More

[16], 382, [1, 1 blank] pp.First and only edition of a diverse collection of anecdotes, mostly regarding the weather, from biblical times up until the year 1700. The author lists war, famines, floods, earthquakes, storms, comets & eclipses, plagues (of diseases, rats, mice, locusts and caterpillars) as well as the prices of wine, corn and other foods. Particularly gruesome are the prices of food in besieged Derry which included dogs meat "fattened with the meat of dead Irishmen", cat, rat, candlewax, salted skins and even a "handful of wall" (p. 317). The book mostly lists events in Europe, but the colonies in Asia and the Americas are also covered, as are Turkey and the Middle East.Gerrit van Spaan (1651-1711) was a baker, antiquary and poet known for various comic novels as well as a history of Rotterdam.Binding worn and partially repaired with paste paper, but internally in very good condition, with only some browning to the final pages.l Scheepers II, 777; STCN (4 copies); cf. Nijhoff & V. Hattum 295-297. Read More

64 pp.Chapbook-edition of the famous voyage by the famous Dutch VOC skipper and merchant Willem Ysbrantsz. Bontekoe (1587-1657), including the account of the voyage undertaken by another Dutch skipper and later commander in the whaling industry Dirk Albertsz. Raven (ca. 1589-after 1639) to Greenland. Bontekoe's voyage, which took him eight years, from 1618 to 1625, is realistically told in a vivid and imaginative style, and includes all sorts of curious details. It was first published in the middle of the 17th century, Waller calls it an "immortal work", and Buisman lists over 60 editions published between 1646 and 1930. Used as a school book for centuries, the story of Bontekoe still inspired 20th century authors of children's books, like the popular author and journalist Johan Fabricius (1899-1981), who published De Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe in 1924, which is still read today.With the bookplate of the Buijnsters-Smets collection on the front pastedown, remnants of an owner's stamp on the… Read More

[8], 196; [2], 67, [2 blank], 96 pp.First edition (apparently expanded from a planned 1654 issue that seems not to have been published) of Jeremias de Decker's collected verses, including verses he translated. De Decker (1609-1666) was one of the most important poets of the second generation of the Dutch golden age and a follower of P.C. Hooft and Vondel. The printer-publisher Jacob Colom (the “J.K.” of the present title) had published the first book of De Decker’s epigrams (Punt-dichten), his first published work, in 1650. collected and edited his works for the present edition. Already in 1651, his long series of original verses devoted to Jesus, Goede vrydag (Good Friday) appeared in a published collection, where they stood next to the work of Hugo de Groot, P.C. Hooft and Vondel, and became his best-known work. His translation of the Latin Baptistes, a tragic play about John the Baptist by the Scottish humanist George Buchanan (1506-1582), written ca. 1541 but not published until 1577, was… Read More

A manuscript map drawn in coloured inks on parchment showing the Duchy of Guelders (mostly now in the province of Gelderland) and surroundings, with north to the left. The Duchy itself is shown in light green with a slightly darker green border, the main (northern) part bounded by the Zuyder Zee (now the IJsselmeer) and the River Lek to the north, the River IJssel to the east and the River Maas to the south. The disjunct southern part of the Duchy is further south, up the River Maas, partly cut off at the right. The map was clearly intended to show the coats of arms (rendered in colour and gold) of the provinces (or before 1588 their predecessors) of Holland (county), Utrecht (lordship), Brabant (duchy), Overijsel (lordship), Gelderland (Duchy of Guelders), Zutphen (county) and Cleves (duchy). In fact, there appear to be two errors: the arms placed in Zutphen show a rampant lion, as expected, but the tinctures (colours) indicate the arms of Jülich rather than Zutphen; and the arms shown in Utrecht… Read More

[1], [1 blank], [1], [1 blank], [27], [1 blank], 412, [3], [1 blank] pp.First and only edition of this early 17th-century detailed description of the city 's-Hertogenbosch in the duchy of Brabant by the famous Dutch historian Pieter Christiaenszoon Bor (1559-1635). Bor was a notary in Haarlem, but he dedicated his life to compiling primary sources, doing historical research, and writing the very detailed, precise and reliable history of the Dutch Revolt. That major historical work was Bor's magnum opus, which was first published in 1595 under the following title: Oorspronck, begin ende aenvang der Nederlantscher oorlogen [...] but he kept on revising and expanding the work. Apart from his magnum opus and the present work on 's-Hertogenbosch, Bor wrote one other work on the "origins of the Dutch wars": the cause and first few years from 1555-1567 of the Eighty Years' War (or Dutch War of Independence, 1555-1648).Binding is very slightly soiled, slight foxing and browning throughout, small part of the… Read More

[4], 439, [5] pp.Interesting pharmacopoeia intended for the use of surgeons by Anton Theden (1714-1797), the Surgeon-General of the Prussian Army and personal physician to Frederick the Great. The present work is a rare copy of the first and only Dutch translation of his work. In it, he details the human anatomy and provides a description of the organs, their function and the cure of the most common diseases affecting them. The second part of the volume comprises a medical reflections on the treatment of infectious diseases by the translator of the German text. A. Schrage.Theden's most significant contributions were in the field of surgery. He introduced a treatment for inflamed wounds called “inflamed wound or shot water,” which consisted of brandy, honey or sugar, vinegar, and diluted sulphuric acid. This method, an advancement of his predecessor Schmucker's work, gained widespread use and became known as “Tinctura Antimonii Thedenii.” Theden also invented the elastic catheter, a technique for… Read More

52, 288, [34]; xxxii, [2], 413, [59] pp.Ad 1: Third edition of what is called "the starting-point of modern systematic botany." This edition includes the additions from the Classes Plantarum (1738) and for the first time French names of the different genera. One of the folding engravings is the famous plate after G.D. Ehret, illustrating the sexual system. Ad 2: Fourth edition of a botanical dictionary, the first edited by L.C. Richard. Title-pages with library stamps and owner's entries; binding rubbed and corners and head of spine damaged.l Ad 1: Soulsby 299; Stafleu & Cowan 4714; ad 2: Hunt 432; Stafleu & Cowan 910.

[10], 15-404, [4] pp.Original edition of this highly interesting edition of the diary of Colonel Christopher Palmer Rigby (1820-1885), British Consul on Zanzibar, recording his strenuous attempts to put a stop to the business of slavery in the Sultanate, and his success in securing freedom for thousands of individual slaves. The original diary was sold recently, in February 2021, for € 78.000. It was his daughter Lilian M. Russell-Rigby (1875-1949) who was the editor, interspersed with lines pf poetry and extracts of historical commentary in several languages, including Arabic, various newspaper cuttings and personal letters. His beneficence went so far as rescuing two slave boys and bringing them back to London to be educated.Rigby found himself in the center of the complicated power struggle between the Sultan of Zanzibar, Majid bin Said, his brother the Sultan of Oman, Thuwaini, and their brother Barghash, trying to maintain peace and enforce the anti-slavery treatises already in place.Zanzibar’s… Read More

[19], [1 blank] pp.Only edition of a rare pamphlet by a Swiss warning against Spanish supremacy in Europe. The text is translated from the French into Dutch and published, not surprisingly in 1608, on the threshold of the Twelve Year's Truce between the Dutch Republic and Spain (1609-21).Good copy.l Knuttel 1485; Tiele, Pamfletten, 695; Simoni G 39; Zijlstra, Den Zeusem Beesem, 0203.

[1], [1 blank], 94 pp.Third edition of this description of Northwest India and of the cotton, silk and indigo trade by Johan van Twist (d. 1643), Dutch merchant and envoy of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and director of the VOC in Ahmadabad, the capital of the modern state of Gujarat. Between 1617 and 1744 the city was one of the VOC trading posts (factories) in India, falling under Suratte on the river Tapti. On pp. 74-94 follows a description of the coasts, shallows and roads useful for sailing the East Indies, including descriptions of the sailing routes from Bantam to Amboina, from Amboina to Ternate and Celebes, from Bantam through the Strait of Balemban and Zabon to Malacca till Achin, from Achin to Ceylon and Puncto Gallo, and from Batavia to Japan (Firando). Van Twist is known through a painting by Jan Baptist Weenix and this posthumously published description of Gujarat. He became chief of the trading post Gujarat in 1635, Cabaya and Bortchia, and governor of Dutch Malacca… Read More

XI, [5], 496 pp.First edition, one of two simultaneously published issues, of the French translation of an essay regarding natural history and geology by the English naturalist John Woodward (1665-1728), translated by Pierre Noguez. "An important figure in the history of geology, Woodward proposed that a universal flood had once disintegrated all the stony and mineral matter forming the earth's crust along with animals and plants, ... Fossils, he asserted, were definitely the remains of once living animals or plants. This essay had a wide effect in Great Britain and Europe" (Hoover). The folding plate shows a cross-section of the earth at a scale of about 1:90,000,000, with a four-layer crust surrounding a water core. The essay is followed by Woodward's response to Camerarius's critique on Woodward's theory. Included at the end are letters written by or to prominent scholars and some extracts from texts supporting Woodward's theory, mostly dealing with fossils.Endpapers waterstained. Binding worn… Read More

[2], 362 [=360]; 100 pp.First edition of the German translation of the utopian novel Histoire des Sevarambes (History of the Sevarambians) by the French writer Denis Vairasse (ca. 1635-1700). It describes an imaginary journey to Australia and gives the history of the people living there, in the style of Thomas Moore's Utopia. It tells the story from the perspective of one Captain Siden [Denis], whose ship discovers the great kingdom Sevarambia. Presented in the manner of the contemporary geographical and anthropological works, the book provides a direct criticism of imposed religions, in particular attacking 17th-century Catholicism (Vairasse himself was a Protestant). Remarkably, this edition also includes the first German translation of Thomas Smith's account of slavery in Africa, in the original English entitled The adventures of an English merchant, taken prisoner by the Turks of Algiers, and carried into the inland countries of Africa.Title-page and last two pages frayed along the margins and… Read More

[1], [1 blank], [92] pp. and 47 engraved plates.First edition of a very rare work on geometry, with almost 50 engraved plates, presenting a thorough pictorial course of all aspects of geometry and its application to the construction of military fortifications. The work was popular in the 17th century and has been translated into multiple languages, but the first edition is quite rare and can only be found in a few libraries.Samuel Marolois (ca. 1572-1626/27), a Dutch mathematician and military engineer, first published the work in French during the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609-1621) in the Eighty Years’ War (1566/68-1648) between Spain and the Low Countries. During this time, Maurits of Nassau (1567-1625), Prince of Orange, developed the new Dutch techniques and strategies of fortification that booked great success. Marolois was the first to systematize these new Dutch ideas in his Fortification ou architecture militaire (1615). The present work, Géométrie, was published a year later and explained… 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

Engraved chart listing the noble families and clergy of Germany, published by the Amsterdam publisher Pieter Schenk (1660-1718). The chart includes 15 large coats of arms of kings, bishops, dukes and counts, 20 smaller coats of arms of 10 abbots and 10 abbesses and 23 of bishops. Also included are lists of the nobility of different German provinces, with a small map of Germany at the bottom of the chart depicting the provinces.Margins slightly thumbed and with a minor reinforcement and restoration of the fold on the back, otherwise in very good condition.l Koeman, p. 120 (map 32); Muller, Historieplaaten 3031 (XXXIV)

xii" [= viii], 612 pp.First edition of the most important publication on the history of botany published in the 19th century. Julius Sachs (1832-1897) can be seen as the founder of modern plant physiology and the “most influential nineteenth century botanist in promoting experimental botany” (Stafleu & Cowan IV, p. 1040). Library stamp of the Zoologisches Institut Strassburg on title-page. Some small stains, mainly in the last part of the book, not affecting the text. Binding slightly worn, spine cracked, but still in good condition.l BMC (NH) IV, p. 1779; Bradley I, p. 79; DSB XII, p. 60; Jackson, p. 3; Stafleu & Cowan IV, 9957; for the author: DSB XII, p. 60; Stafleu & Cowan IV, p. 1040.

IX, [3], 934, [6] pp.First edition, in the original German, of a pharmaceutical history by the German apothecary Hermann Schelenz (1848-1922). His "voluminous history of pharmacy presents such a treasury of information that the [present] original edition was reprinted after more than a half century (1961) (Sonnedecker). Some annotations in pencil on title-page and a minor waterstain in the lower margins of last leaves. Overall in very good condition.l G. Sonnedecker (ed.), Kremers and Urdang's history of pharmacy, p. 388.

350, [2 blank]; 302, [2 blank], 31, [1 blank] pp.First edition of the second German translation of the important utopian novel Histoire des Sevarambes (Paris, 1677) by the Huguenot author Denis Vairasse (or Veiras), set in Terra Australis. The framework for the story was provided by the ill-fated voyage of the VOC ship De Vergulde Draeck, wrecked off the coast of Western Australia in 1656. The narrator, Captain Siden, sails in De Vergulde Draeck to Terra Australis, where the ship runs aground. The castaways subsequently discover a utopian civilisation, marked by natural theology and a rationalist social system.The translator and publisher of the present German edition, Johann Gottwerth Müller (1743-1828), was an author in his own right and an ardent supporter of the European Enlightenment. The present copy is bound with Müller's Literarische Anmerkungen, in which he discusses the political, social and religious implications of Vairasse's utopia.Bindings show some signs of wear, very slight foxing… Read More