Search Results: Titles starting with Q from Antiquariaat FORUM BV

16 pp.Hydrography pertains to the applied sciences that encompass the assessment and depiction of the natural characteristics of bodies of water, such as oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, and coastal regions. It also involves forecasting changes over time to guarantee safe navigation and support various marine-related activities, which include scientific research, environmental preservation, economic advancement, security, and defense. Offered here is a very rare Swedish eighteenth-century dissertation on the composition of hydrographic maps and their correct use. Its author, Olaf Friberg defines a hydrographic map as a projection of a part of a certain globe on a plane, adapted for the use of navigators. He explains that these type of maps are called reduced maps, in which the degrees of the parallels are smaller than the degrees of the meridian in a given ratio. Friberg was acutely aware of the problem of depicting the curved surfaces of the earth and its waters on flat maps. He exemplified his… Read More

[29] ll.Arabic manuscript containing the Arabic translation of Ibn Sina’s Qanunsah ("Small canon"), originally written in Persian: a brief medical compendium compiled by the Khwarazmian polymath Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Gamini based on Ibn Sina’s famous Qanun. This abridged manual of medicine is arranged in ten parts ("maqalat", or "discourses"), each containing several chapters. The first maqalat serves as a general introduction, dealing with the basic concepts of 14th century medical science and illustrating the various physical qualities (al-arkan) and body constitutions (al-amzigat), then focusing on the four Galenic humours (al-ahlat) - blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile - before discussing the parts of the body, the senses or faculties (al-quwá), and the preservation of one’s natural temper (al-umur at-tabi iya). Further "discourses" treat anatomy, the various "conditions of the human body" ("ahwal badan al-insan"), the pulse, the "tafsira", or urine bottle given to the physician by… Read More

335 pp.First British edition of the narrative of an American archaeological expedition to Yemen, under the leadership of Wendell Phillips (1921-1975) which earned him the nickname "America's Lawrence of Arabia". After having successfully organised an expedition to various parts of Africa, Phillips turned his attention to southern Arabia, at the suggestion of the Aga Khan. After crossing out several candidate locations, Phillips decided to excavate in Ma'rib, in the western part of the Kingdom of Yemen, where he believed that the capital of the legendary Queen of Sheba was to be found. With the help of a large workforce of local inhabitants the expedition started work at Timna, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Qataban, and at nearby Hajar bin Humeid. With tensions increasing between the expedition and the local populace, the expedition as finally abandoned in 1952. Many of the excavated (or looted, according to the local population) items are now in the collection of the Smithsonian.Phillips… Read More

XXXIX, [1], 640, 85, [2], [1 blank] pp.Collected works of the Roman author Macrobius, active in the fifth century, in contemporary richly gold-tooled morocco. "The basis is the text of Gronovius, … The notes of Pontanus and Obsopoeus are added, with an account … of the use of the works of Macrobius, and of the best editions of his text" (Dibdin).With the bookplate of Cornelius J. Hauck. Binding slightly rubbed and part of the tooling oxidized, but otherwise still good. Internally in very good condition.l Brunet III, col. 1286; Graesse IV, p. 330; ICCU 008758; cf. Dibdin II, p. 221 (1737 Padua ed.).

[24], 561, [71] pp.The first and best Elzevier edition of the three editions published in 1635 of the collected works of Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), edited by Josephus Justus Scaliger, distinguished by the buffalo's head in the headpieces of the dedicatory epistle and on p. 1 and the pages 149, 335 et 475, misnumbered 153, 345 et 375, containing all Caesar’s authentic reports of his campaigns in Gaul and during the Civil War. Julius Caesar’s war commentaries are some of the most prolific military writings of antiquity! It would become a mainstay in the Latin literature canon. They are here continued by reports on Caesar's campaigns in Alexandria, Africa and Spain, which are usually found together with Caesar's own writings, but have most probably not been written by Caesar himself. They are usually attributed to Aulus Hirtius, a legate to Caesar and writer on military subjects who also completed the 8th book of De bello Gallico. With the owner's inscription of J. Knoop dated 1676 on the… Read More

First edition, early issue. The first of Alken's works to have a title-page, "lacking from a great many copies" (Dixon). Signed Ben Tally Ho, the title explains with good humour that the plates are a reply to Robert Frankland's Indispensable accomplishments, a set of 6 Leicestershire hunting prints published in June 1811. Where Frankland blames the horse for any failures, Alken aims to show how a perfectly good horse can be handicapped by an "unqualified" or untrained rider.Light browning to sky areas and plate margins, with the bookplate of Alfred N. Beadleston.l Dixon 4 (noting 2 plates watermarked 1819); Mellon 3; Schwerdt I, 20 (1813 watermark); Siltzer 69 & 74; Tooley, Some English books with coloured plates 44 (dating it 1819).

166 pp.First and only edition of a fascinating combination of Italian Renaissance travel account, literature and philosophy. The publication is rare and hardly appears in the literature, so it is little known and provides a wealth of curious information. Real and imaginary stories of mercantile voyages to the East are combined with philosophical reflections on travel, in an endeavour to lift travel to a higher philosophical level. There are seven numbered chapters. The fourth chapter lays out an extensive trade route from Italy to India that runs through the Arabian Peninsula, resembling the famous Silk Route. It names many Arabian locations including Aleppo, Mecca, Hormuz and Basra. The final destinations are the cities of Magalore and Canonore (Kannur) on the Indian west coast, which are reached via Cambaia (Khambhat). Another chapter tells the story of a mercantile voyage by ship to China, with a stopover in India. The traveller describes a stay of several days in Calicut (Kozhikode), where they… Read More