Medieval Texts

London: Guy Chapman, 1925. Quarto (30 cm); xix, 211, [1] pages. Leaf from propectus laid in. Printed on Rives bond utilizing reproductions of the roman type designed by Francesco Griffo for Aldus Manutius, and the italic of Antonio Blado. Bound in buckram stamped in gilt. Sun damage and shelf wear to spine and extremities. Top edge bumped. Owner's bookplate. Edition limited to 750 copies. more information

New York: Thames and Hudson, 1978. 27 cm; 208 pages. Photographs by Peter Chèze-Brown. Green cloth in dust jacket. VG/VG. more information

Geneva: Droz, 1972. Wraps. 180 p. unopened. more information

Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1839. 23 cm; 522 pages. Woodcut illustrations in text. Bound in full speckled calf , leather title label on spine. Worn, endleaves foxed, but sound and entire. more information

Paris: P. Jannet, 1856. Cloth. 12mo; 17 cm., lvi, 309 p., Red cloth, stamped in blind, titled in gilt on spine., Minor wear., Includes "L'Empereur Constant," "Amis et Amile," "Le Roi Flore et la belle Jehanne," "La Contesse de Ponthieu," and "Aucassin et Nicolette. more information

Milano: Vallardi, 1954. 2 vols. 1370 p. continuously numbered. Wraps, edges brittle and brown. Comprehensive literary history. more information

New York: The Heritage Press, 1971. 27 cm; 112 pages. "The Sandglass" laid in. Attractive wood engravings. Bound in 1/4 gray cloth over decorated boards, in slipcase. VG/G+, with slight discoloration to edges of slipcase. more information

Paris: Honore Champion, 1919. Wraps. 32 p. Wraps, unopened brittle, edges brown. more information

Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1564. First edition. References: Baudrier, 9, 296 ("Les exemplaires de ce premier tirage sont beaucoup plus rares que celui du second"); Mortimer, French, 92 ("this edition is extremely rare"); Brunet, II 1255; Gültlingen 10, 147, #594. 8vo (17cm); 147 (of 148) leaves, lacks final blank leaf. Woodcut printer's device, and 269 woodcut vignettes of Old Testament subjects by Pierre Eskrich, of which 18 are full-page cuts. Bound in unremarkable 19th-century marbled paper over boards. Two centimeters of title page excised at bottom edge, not affecting text. Pages lightly toned with only occasional blemishes or stains. Light dampmark pervades upper margin. Extremely rare first edition of the bible illustrations by Pierre Eskrich, with verses by Guillaume Guéroult. A second edition appeared in 1565, identical except for the year on the title page; the companion New Testament appeared in 1570. Merging the separate traditions of the "Biblia Pauperum" (bibles in pictures for unlettered readers) and the emblem book (wisdom conveyed in pictures with explanatory verses), this volume presents the Hebrew Bible in a series of woodcuts, glossed in French octaves. The full-page images are copied out of Estienne's 1540 illustrated Bible (Schreiber, 59), and the smaller cuts were designed for Rouillé's 1562 Bible, and here employed in more popular form, as emblems. Guéroult's name heads the dedication to Catherine de Médicis. more information

Vicenza: Simon De Gabis Bevilaqua (Colophon: per Symonem de Gabis Papiesem), 20 December 1487. References: HC 3316; GW 4476; Goff B-752.. Folio (32 cm); [8], 200 leaves. Type 1:88R, 53 lines per page. 7-line initial spaces with guide letters (initials occasionally supplied in pen by contemporary or later reader). Text in 2 columns. Bound in 18th-century (?) 1/2 mottled calf over patterned paper boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt tooling and gilt title label. Titled in ink on fore edge. Occasional notation in early hand; occasional spots and occasional light foxing. Few leaves browned in latter part of text. Free endleaves consist of original manuscript on vellum, 9th or 10th century, in a remarkably clear and readable Carolingian miniscule hand. The text on the endleaves is from the Homilies of Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt (d. 853). Boccaccio's encyclopedia of classical mythology, to which he devoted the last third of his life, opened the way for the European Humanist endeavor that flourished for two centuries after. Medieval scholasticism discouraged study of pre-Christian literature on the grounds that there could be no truth prior to Christ. In this hostile climate, Boccaccio produced a serious, comprehensive account of classical mythology, and at the same time he defended his studies against the charge of irrelevance. The last two chapters of the Genealogies of the Gods are devoted to this defense, arguing that poetry (including the entire realm of myth) is noble, demanding, and rooted in divine inspiration. It veils a central truth at its core. This defense of literary scholarship provided the theoretical framework for studia humanitatis, the study and interpretation of poetry which gave Humanism its name. Considered Boccaccio's most important work into the Age of Enlightenment, the Genealogies of the Gentile Gods was copied, read, printed and cited more frequently than the Decameron during that time. This edition, the second in the parade of printings, was the first book printed by Simon Bevilaqua, and the only book in which he allowed his family name, De Gabis, to appear. Simone Gabi (1450-1518) deliberately kept his origins in shadow. We know nothing of him before the publication of this edition of Boccaccio's Genealogies of the Gentile Deities. In all subsequent work (in Vicenza, Venice, Torino, and ultimately Lyon) he signed his name "Bevilaqua," a nickname he wore ironically because of the copious amounts of wine he consumed. In addition to Boccaccio's encyclopedia, the text also includes his gazetteer of classical geography, "De Montibus, Sylvis, Fontibus, Lacubus, Fluminibus, Stagnis, seu Paludibus, De Nominibus Maris." more information

Bari: Laterza, 1939. 22 cm; 262 pages. Original brown printed wraps. Unopened. Old bookplate on verso of upper wrap; owner's blindstamp on series title page. Pencil notation on upper wrap. Shelf mark applied to spine. Slight tear at upper joint; some slight shelf wear. Published in the Scrittori d'Italia series. more information

Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. First edition, limited to 300 copies. Reference: See the Rigpa Wiki page on Sonam Gyatso, http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Thartse_Khen_Rinpoche. 52 cm square. Two volumes in separated deluxe boxes. 339 pages; [139] leaves. Text in English, Japanese, Tibetan and Sanskrit. Vol. 1 bound in grey shantung, embossed in gold; v. 2 bound in gold shantung, embossed in silver. Each volume housed in a cloth covered case. Extra shipping charges apply. Stunning deluxe limited edition of the collection of 139 thangha paintings or mandalas held in the Ngor Monastery (formerly in Tibet, re-established in India). The extraordinary catalogue raisonne was the life work of Sonam Gyatso Rinpoche (1930-1988) of the Ngor Monastery. The exhaustive text identifies the meditational deities depicted in each thangka, together with their accompanying Sanskrit antecedentsand relatives in other teachings. In the wake of cultural vandalism, the Ngor Collection is the only surviving complete set of mandalas in existence.

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Geneva: Droz, 1971. Wraps. 208 p. Wraps. Unopened. On Adam de la Halle's cardinal play. more information

Venice: Petrus Liechtenstein, at the expense of Joannes Oswalt, 1516. Reference: Essling, 289. Octavo (17cm); [12],329,[2] leaves (last leaf with extraneous woodcut on verso apparently bound in from a different text). Gothic type. Text in two columns. Printed in black and red, with six full-page woodcuts (one repeated, one extraneous), historiated initials and illustrated borders. Title page woodcut of Virgin in majesty. Benefactor's monogram on f. 233. Old flexible vellum, soiled. Straps not present. Title page artlessly mounted with masking tape. First quire sprung but holding. Few blemishes and stains, but basically clean. Inscription of music in contemporary hand on last blank. Ownership inscription on title page in contemporary hand (Christorpher Vuidman). Originally paired with a companion "breviarium estivalis." A fine example of Gothic printing styles surviving in early 16th-century Venice specifically for religious texts. Extraordinary woodcuts. more information

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. 228 p. Wraps. Translation into English by Burton Raffel. more information

Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1962. First edition. 25 cm; xviii, 48 pages. Bound in green cloth, stamped in gilt. more information

Paris: Gazette des beaux-arts, 1902. First edition. 39 cm; viii, 290 pages, and 21 leaves of plates. Numerous illustrations in text. Edition limited to 260 copies, this copy out of series, "exemplaire spécialment tiré pour Monsieur Charles Éphrussi." Bound in recent half calf, polished, over pebbled cloth-covered boards. Gilt-tooled borders, ornaments and title. Gasuffered edges. Few superficial chips along joints and at spine ends. Plates variously foxed, mostly in margins. Text clean. Vast--and vastly influential--study of the iconography of Petrarch's song cycles, The Triumphs (Trionfi) and the song book of "scattered rhymes" (Il Canzoniere). The essay was a collaboration between the art historian Eugène Müntz and the wealthy collector and amateur scholar Victor Masséna. The result is a luxurious book that was indispensible in the formation of the discipline of iconology. This copy is out of series, and in place of the justification page is a printed dedication to Charles Ephrussi, the patron of arts who effectively launched Renoir's career, and was a great supporter of Degas, Manet, Monet, and Proust. more information

Venice: Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari, 1574. Reference: Bongi, II, 346; Gamba, 1393; ICCU Edit 16 (online), CNCE 18742.. Quarto (21 cm); [16] 231, [1] pages; [28] leaves. Headpiece and printer's phoenix device on title page. Ten woodcut vignettes (8 x 6 cm) framed in architectural borders; over eighty woodcut historiated initials, headpieces and tailpieces. Bound in nineteenth-century marbled paper-covered boards. Trimmed a little close, but without loss. Old illegible stamp on title page. Pages very lightly toned, and otherwise without marks or blemishes. In 1561, the scholar-printer Gabriel Giolito acquired permission from the Venetian Senate to commission the humanist Lodovico Dolce to write a history of the world. Dolce died in 1568 without delivering the manuscript. Giolito had hired Agostino Ferentilli to help the aging Dolce organize his papers, and we suspect that the present text is an elaboration made from Dolce's notes. It was first published in 1570, and it became a staple in Giolito's catalogue for the next ten years. Of the six editions published, the 1574 edition offered here is the only one that included shoulder notes! It is almost universally found bound together with Ferentilli's translation of Philo's "On the Creation. more information

Pisa: Niccolò Capurro, 1816. 15cm; 5 volumes only (of 6). Lacks volume 6, containing the "Rime." Engraved frontispiece portrait and one folding plate. Unsophisticated copy, untrimmed in publisher's wraps. Paper labels on spines. Spine ends shelf worn with some loss. Reference: Gamba 463, note. The works of the proto-libertine who praised women and human sexuality in the Tuscan vernacular (sex talk had been reserved to Latin, a language rarely taught to women), and who incidentally helped forge Italian literary conventions. The text includes the author's imitations of Aesop ("Discorsi degli animali"), his "Ragionamenti amorose" (Discourses on love, styled after Boccaccio's Decameron), the dialogue On the Beauty of Women ("Delle bellezze delle donne," with illustrations), the epistle in praise of women, the two comedies "La Trinuzia" (the Triple Marriage) and "I Lucidi," the Macchiavellian "Novelle," and his Italian translation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius. more information

Paris: Ledentu, 1825. Nouvelle edition. 8 volumes 12mo (15cm). 36 fine copperplate engraved plates. Charming, unsophisticated copy in original publisher's wraps, untrimmed. Paper labels. Edges worn, and many corners rounded; paper labels partly missing from first two volumes. Scattered moderate dampstaining and spots, yet very good condition overall. more information

London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1897. Royal 8vo; [xxx], 312 p., and 11 gravures by E.R. Hughes. Brown silk moiré, vignette stamped in gilt on top board, rubbed, bumped and scuffed. Ser Giovanni's worldly tales in a delightful belle époque edition limited to 600 copies. more information

New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1971. 27 cm; 448 pages, including 169 color and half-tone illustrations. Cloth in dust jacket, with shelf wear only. Pages lightly toned toward edges. more information

Edinburgh, 1758. 22 cm; [1] leaf, 403, [1 blank], 79, [1 blank] pages. Black letter; head and tail pieces; initials. "Relationes quaedam Arnaldi Blair ... Willielmi Wallas militis, 1327": 79 pages at end (with signatures continuous). Bound in early twentieth-century half pebbled morocco, raised bands, gilt edges. Small scuffs on lower board. First and last pages somewhat foxed, with very occasional light foxing elsewhere. Remains of old bookplate on title page, affecting initial lines. Manuscript leaf bound in copying passage on Wallace from a biography of Mary Baker Eddy, and bearing a note on the edition attributed to John Jamieson, editor of the 1820 edition of the poem. Reference: Brunet, II, 520, note. The text of the "Braveheart" legend, how William Wallace raised a fighting band of farmers who drove the professional English army out of Scotland. Henry the Minstrel (or "Blind Harry"), set the legend down in the 15th century in epic style (12 books, like the Aeneid) . The poem was first published in 1570. The 1758 edition offered here is the first to include the Latin antecedent to Blind Harry's poem, John Blair's "Relationes." Blair's text is followed by extensive commentary, in Latin, by Thomas Gray, George Buchanan, Thomas Crawford, and others. more information

Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1969. xxxix, 299 p. Wraps. more information

Venice: Bernardinum de Bindonis, 1539. Reference: Renouard, Badius, II, 542, 15; Schweiger Latin I, 503; . Folio (32 cm); [6], CLXII leaves;15 woodcut illustrations in text. Title page printed in red and black, with title framed within elaborately illustrated border. Remains of extensively decorated and inscribed endleaves, as described below. Bound in recent one-quarter tooled leather over wooden boards in period style, with leather and brass clasps. One clasp missing; lower board stained, with one corner chipped. Some worming, mostly marginal and rarely affecting text. Occasional ink stains, some of them significant. Occasional staining, especially in first signature. Few leaves browned. A Venice edition of the Satires of Juvenal, utilizing the text established by Giovanni Britannico at the beginning of the century. The two remaining endleaves of this illustrated Renaissance edition of Juvenal reveal a remarkable trajectory of ownership. Above a color sketch of a crest framed by grotesque figures, one owner inscribed "io Federico addi' 20 jugno 1567 comprai questo da un Hebreo" (I Federico, on June 20, 1567, bought this from a Jew). A different hand, on the last blank, inscribed a sycophantic paean in Latin to Paul IV (Pope from 1555-1559), ironically the very pope who instituted the Jewish ghetto in Rome, along with decrees that Jews must wear distinguishing yellow hats and shawls. The second inscription is decorated with a roughly-drawn capital I featuring a human face and a rampant cat. Still other inscriptions identify the source of the crest ("Evander Rampinus faciebat haec insignia"); and, despite Paul IV, who instituted the Index of Prohibited Books, another inscription echoes Juvenal's rage against censorship ("il pennello è a pugnare," the pen is for fighting). In all, the fly-leaves show a juxtaposition of crested nobles, ghettoed Jews, and intolerant clergy around an illustrated classical text produced at the height of the Italian Renaissance. Also reprints the 1498 preface to Juvenal by Badius Ascensius. more information

Edinburgh: Printed for the Maitland Club, 1839. First edition. Reference: Graesse 4, 92;. 28 cm; xxiv, 185 pages. Bound in contemporary red half morocco over pebbled boards, edged with gilt rules . Spine decorated and titled in gilt. Marbled endleaves. Moderate wear, especially at extremities, with spine chipped a bit at heel. Two labels removed from pastedowns. A little foxing at front blank, and the pages are not bright, but text is effectively unblemished. First printing of a fifteenth-century Scottish version of the Arthurian romance that was composed for the court of James III. It survived in a unique (and incomplete) manuscript in the Cambridge library. The text was edited by the ilbrarian of Durham Cathedral, Joseph Stevenson, and publishd by the Maitland Club, an association dedicated to the promotion of Scottish literature and culture. more information

Milan: Libreria Antiquaria Ulricho Hoepli, 1930. 32cm; 136 pages, and 114 full-page plates, several of them printed in colors. Bound in printed wraps, frayed somewhat at spine ends with some loss at heel. Some light foxing along edges of first and last leaves only. Text block clean and bright. Oneof the great Hoepli illustrated acution catalogues, with exemplary descriptions of 160 manuscripts, incunables and illustrated 16th-century books. more information

Paris: Petrus Promé, 1669. 12mo (16cm); [32], 251, [1] pages. Woodcut and typographic headpieces. Bound in contemporary mottled calf, with later leather label. (Upper joint repaired, lower joint slightly cracked but sound and entire. A clean, crisp copy.) First edition in Latin of this treatise on the Jewish calendar, chronology and astronomy by Maimonides. The philosopher discusses the calculations for determining Rosh Chodesh (the first day of the month), and deliberates on the interface between science and biblical authority. Translated from Hebrew into Latin by Louis de Compiègne de Veil, with his comments. Recent scholarship has determined that Isaac Newton (who devoted much energy to questions of chronology) consulted this text in this translation. more information

New York: George Braziller, 1983. First edition. 24 cm; 132 pages including 28 color plates of illustrations from the original manuscript. Bound in gilt-stamped blue leather over boards, preserved in illustrated slipcase. more information

San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. First edition. 25 cm; 369 p. Cloth in dust jacket, both about fine. more information

New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. 31 cm; 160 pages and 2 folding maps. Fine color illustrations. Crimson cloth in dust jacket. About fine. Introduction by Charles T. Little and Timothy B. Husband, with commentary by the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. more information

New York and Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1971. 25 cm; 445 pages and 93 half-tone plates. Cloth in dust jacket. Dust jacket tired, frayed at edges. Shelf wear. more information

New York: Pantheon, 1951. 24 cm; 347 pages. Original boards in dust jacket. VG/G. Dust jacket worn at edges and price clipped. Text slightly toned at edges. First printing of the Bollingen Series XXVIII, the writings of Paracelsus, translated into English by Norbert Guterman. more information

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. First Edition. Cloth. more information

Modena: Bartolomeo Soliani, 1711. 4to (23 cm); xxxv, [1], 860 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initial. Bound in earlier vellum (remboitage) pressed into service for which it was not quite ample. As a result, the gutter has split between the first and second leaves, holding by strained threads. Titled in manuscript on spine. Light damp stains at beginning and end of text. Reference: Brunet: IV, 553 ("toujours recherchée"). First printing of the Muratori/Tassoni edition of Petrarch, which placed the two leading literary figures into something of an editorial competition. Each poem in the Canzoniere is followed by Muratori's and Tassoni's comments (along with Muzio's 16th-century notes), which occasionally agree. One laments the unfortunate binding (a decision made in the 18th-century by someone trying to be thrifty), but the book is important. more information

Boston: John W. Luce and Company, 1907. 22 cm; 4 p.l., 127 pages. Photogravure frontispiece of Petrarch's house at Vaucluse. Bound in midnight blue half morocco over blue linen-covered boards, scored in gilt, by Atelier Bindery. Corners and extremities barked slightly. Private library bookplate. Preliminary leaves show faint waffling in lower margin. Very good condition. First American publication, from British sheets, of Agnes Tobin's Edwardian translation of Petrarch's songs. more information

Verona: Printed for the members of the Limited Editions Club, at the Stamperia Valdonega,, 1965. 32 cm; xviii, [1], 369 p. illus. Bound in quarter blue levant morocco with the title stamped in gold leaf and the boards covered with a beige mould-made Italian paper with the front cover impressed with a head of Petrarch drawn by the illustrator. Planned at the Officina Bodoni and printed at the Stamperia Valdonega by Giovanni Mardersteig. Illustrated with a series of graphite-transfer drawings by Aldo Salvadori. Copy #1408 of 1500 SIGNED by the artist and the printer. Monthly Letter laid in. Slight rubbing to upper joint. Dust jacket spine and slipcase slightly discolored by sunlight, else fine condition. Together with English translations selected and edited with an introduction by Thomas G. Bergin. more information

Venice: Typographia Balleoniana, 1771. 4to (25 cm); 410 pages. Title page in red and black. Text in double columns. Bound in contemporary full calf, worn and tender, front joint cracked but holding. Edges stained red. Extensive contemporary notes in manuscript on endpapers. A treatise on the "principles of a practical moral character, illustrated with cases and examples, for the use of confessors," by a Thomist cleric. Latin text is simple and clear. more information

Geneva: Droz, 1976. 4to, xvii, 242 p. Wraps. more information

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. First edition. 24 cm; [xxiii], 350 pages, illustrated. Cloth in dust jacket. Ownership stamp on top edge, and deaccession stamp on front free endpaper; bit of a tappe ghost on the rear free endpaper, and on covers; bit of shelf wear. Text, dust jacket unblemished. more information

Paris: Edouard Champion, 1924. 130 p.: Wraps, brittle, spine perishing; pages , yellow and brittle; uncut Picturesque chronicle of the crusade of 1204, by a "chevalier pauvre>' from Amiens. more information

Leningrad: Aurora Editions, 1990. First Edition. 35cm; 322, [2] pages. Many color illustrations. Cloth in brightly printed dust jacket. Fine/Fine, protected in publisher's original cardboard shipping folder. more information

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984. 24 cm; 356 pages. Bound in red cloth. Very good condition. First edition. more information

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977. 24 cm; 276 pages. Bound in orange cloth. Flecks on edges, but very good condition. First edition. more information

Bari: Laterza, 1936. Cloth. 550 p. Cloth. Original wraps bound in. Sonnets, canzoni and madrigals by Petrarch's contemporary. more information

Venice: Francesco Brucioli, 1543. References: Olschki, Choix, 4, 1709; Mortimer, Italian, 452 note; Sabin 74810; Honeyman Sale, 2730.. Small quarto (20 cm); [1] 24 leaves. Title within elaborate border showing signs `of the zodiac. Woodcut initials, 20 woodcut figures in text (including a globe showing the New World continents labeled "America"), and woodcut publisher's device on verso of colophon. Bound in recent scored vellum over boards. Leather title label on spine. Old tears in A1, A4 and D3 expertly repaired, with little interference in text. Contemporary marginal notes in ink. The medieval textbook on astronomy by the English wizard John of Holywood was the standard explanation of the Ptolemaic universe, and it appeared in many editions in Western Europe through the 16th century. This Italian version incorporates Sacro Bosco's text along with other sources into a general treatise on the Geocentric model. The title-page border and the cut on the colophon (showing a globe with the New World labeled "America") appeared in an earlier Italian version, and were deployed again here. more information

Florence: Olschki, 1971. 8vo; lxxi, 453 p. Wraps. Magisterial in scope more information

New York: Henry Schuman for the Honorary Consultants to the Army Medical Library, nd [1950]. 8vo (26 cm.); xiii, 361 p., and 12 plates. Bound full cloth; titled in gilt on spine. Slight shelf wear to bottom edge. Bookplate of Goodspeedís Book Shop reference library on front pastedown. Full descriptive bibliography for 490 volumes of incunabula, almost all of them rooted in some aspect of medical science (or protoscience). In addition, the volume accounts for 34 Western manuscripts and the Armyís impressive collection of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Singhalese and Hebrew manuscripts. more information

Dubuque: Priory Press, 1962. First printing of this edition. Cloth. 21 cm; 2 volumes. Title pages and frontispieces printed in red and black. Fine copy in slipcase with original glassine dust jackets. Shelf wear to slipcase only. Complete edition based on manuscripts, with a critical introduction and explanatory notes by Nicholas Heller. Translated from the German by Ann Edward. more information

Paris: Librarie Armand Colin, 1934. Cloth. xvi, 576 p. more information