Illustrated Books and Emblem Books
Venice: Stefano Orlandini, 1730. $5,000Ariosto, Lodovico. [Opere] Orlando furioso ... delle annotazioni de' più celebri autori che sopra esso hanno scritto, e di altre utili, e vaghe giunte in questa impressione adornato, come nell'indice seguente la prefazione si vede.
Folio (39 cm); 2 volumes: [50], 576; [4] 400 pages, and 52 engraved plates. Half title present, first title printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on title page. Full-page portrait of the author by C. Orsolini. Second title within engraved border by Giuseppe Filosi. Section title to the Commedia within woodcut allegorical border. Fifty-one full-page engravings by Filosi and by Giuliano Giampicoli, within one of 3 elaborate borders, one signed Filosi. Woodcut head- and tailpieces. Bound in recent quarter leather over buckram-covered boards, with seven panel, leather title labels in period style. Bright and crisp impressions, clean and fresh text.
References: Morazzoni 213; Gamba 60; Brunet I,437; Graesse I,199; Melzi 173; Agnelli Ravegnani I,3.
Splendid illustrated edition of Ariosto's works, considered the culmination of 17th-century baroque styles of Venetian book design and the first emergence of the 18th-century neoclassical flowering. This copy features strong, clean impressions of the plates, including the Orsolini's great portrait, and fifty-one elaborate, full-page allegories ahead of each canto of Orlando Furioso (which occupies the entire first volume) and the Cinque Canti. The contents of the second volume also include the seven comedies, the epistle to Bembo, the satires, L'Erbolato, and poetry in Italian and Latin.
Bible. [Guéroult, Guillaume]. Figures de la Bible, illustrees de huictains francoys pour l'interpretation et intelligence d'icelles. Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1564. $3,000
First edition. 8vo (17cm); 147 (of 148) leaves, lacks final blank leaf. Woodcut printers 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 occasional blemishes or stains; light dampmark pervades upper margin.
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.
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.
Boccaccio, Giovanni; Hans Mardersteig. The nymphs of Fiesole. Verona: Editiones Officinae Bodoni, 1952. $2,700
29 cm; 127, [1] pages. Illustrated "with the woodcuts made by Bartolommeo di Giovanni for a lost quattrocento edition, which were used to illustrate various later texts and have now been reassembled and recut" (by Fritz Kredel). Bound in quarter vellum over patterned paper-covered boards, with gilt lettering on the spine and single vertical gilt rule on each board where the vellum meets the paper; top edge gilt. Original slipcase. Pristine condition, covers never opened.
Reference: Mardersteig-Schmoller 102; Blumenthal, Art of the Printed Book, 125.
"This edition, illustrated with woodcuts by Bartolomeo di Giovanni recut by Fritz Kredel, has been printed in Griffo type on the hand-press in 225 copies on hand-made Fabriano paper ... Number 99." (Note: In order to preserve the pristine condition of the book, we have taken the image of the title page from Blumenthal.)
Court, Pieter de la (1618?-1685) ; Jacob Gole. Sinryke fabulen, verklaart en toegepast tot alderley zeede-lessen.... Amsterdam: Hieronymus Sweerts , 1685. $1,800
Sole edition. 20 cm; [20], 727, [1] pages, including extra engraved title page. Woodcut device on title page. 100 numbered copperpate engravings of emblems by Jacob Gole, each emblem with a Latin motto in plate and a Dutch motto printed above it. Woodcut and typographic ornaments. Bound in contemporary full mottled calf, paneled spine gilt tooled with leather title label. Covers worn at edges and extremities, with joints, spine-ends, raised bands and corners rubbed with little loss. Joints somewhat tender; boards somewhat splayed. Pages a bit toned; endleaves and extra title browned at edges. Extra title leaf ruptured along plate mark. Sound and entire, with clean, crisp impressions of plates.
References: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books (3rd ed), 433; Praz, p. 392.
In the last year of his life, the political economist Pieter de la Court published this peculiar book of fables illustrated with emblematic engravings by Jacob Gole. Each emblem is glossed with a motto in Latin and Dutch, and each fable is supported with an explanation. The fables and emblems carry political and secular morals, rather than religious or spiritual wisdom.
Playbill
[Dieulafoy, Michel; Sewrin et Dumersan] Portrait de Michel Cervantes, ou L'Intrigue Espagnole ... suivie d'un representation des Anglaises, pour rire, ou La Table et le logement. Calais: Imprimerie de Leroy fils, 1817. $750
Folio sheet (44 x 32 cm); woodcut border. Capitals in woodblock type. Expertly matted.
Rare playbill announcing a performance at Calais of the popular comedy, Portrait de Michel Cervantes, by Michel Dieulafoy (1762-1823). Dieulafoy was a prolific librettist who wrote over a hundred light operas, comedies and farces to great acclaim. His "Portrait of Cervantes" first appeared on stage in 1799, was published in 1802, and translated into English by Charles Kemble (Fanny Kemble's father) in 1808. The play was vigorous enough to remain in repertory for twenty years. (Contemporary with the "Portrait of Cervantes," Dieulafoy wrote a similar 3-act comedy about Rabelais, "Le quart d'heure de Rabelais" [1799] and a small opera about Milton to music by Gaspare Spontini.) The second item on the program was a one-act musical comedy. The director, Frédérick Lemetheyer, later became director of the Theatre Odéon in Paris.
Fore-edge Painting of Skaters
Falconer, William. The Poetical Works. London: Bell and Daldy, 1866. $1,200
16 cm; 239 pages. Gift binding of tan calf, with gilt border on both covers, spine decorated in gilt, and gilt edges. Provenance: The Congregation of St. Saviour’s Upper Chelsea, to the Rev. W. Niven (gilt stamped to upper cover). Fine fore-edge painting of of five figures skating on a frozen pond with a snowy village in the background.
Fore-edge Painting
Gray, Thomas. Poems and Letters. London: Chiswick Press, 1874. $950
4to (29cm); xvi, 415, [1] pages, and 4 mounted photo vignettes. Bound in full tan calf decorated in gilt by Riviere. All edges gilt. Plate backings foxed.) Fine FORE-EDGE PAINTING of an idealized Italian quayside scene. Hinges repaired.
A Paper World
Krul, Jan Hermansz (1602-46). Pampiere wereld ofte Wereldsche oeffeninge, waer in begrepen zijn meest alle de rijmen en werken. Amsterdam: Jan Jacobsz Schipper, 1681. $1,400.
Quarto (24 cm); [12], 320, 447, [5] pages, and engraved extra title page attributed to Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680). Woodcut device on printed title page, woodcut initials. 92 half-page copperplate illustrations in text. 4 parts in one volume, parts 1-2 and 3-4 paged continuously. Bound in contemporary utility marbled boards with vellum backstrip. TItled in ink on spine. Binding worn, with corners bumped, and some paper abraded from edges of boards; spine dusty. Pages not bright, with occasional light dampstains, including frontispiece. Yet book is sound and entire, in good condition.
References: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books (3rd ed.) 432 (calling for 88 engraved illustrations only); Praz, 390.
Third and final edition of Krul's collected works, with illustrations attributed to Adrienne vande Venne and an extra title page attributed to Ferdinand Bols. Krul was one of literature's very few locksmith-poets, although it must be said that in later life he gave up his work as a locksmith and became a bookseller. The title might translate 'Paper world of the worldly (as opposed to spiritual) exercises."
Luyken, Jan ; Adriaan Spinniker. Zedelyke en Stichtelyke Gezangen... Bound with: Lof en oordeel van de werken der barmhertigheid. Amsterdam: Kornelis Vander Sys, 1734. $500
2 parts in 1 volume. 17 cm; [10], 300, [8], including engraved title page and 23 engraved plates in text ; 17, [1] pages including engraved title page and 7 engraved plates in text. Bound in contemporary speckled calf, worn at edtes and extremities. Gilding warn from spine. Yet free of foxing, clean, sound and entire. A good copy.
References: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books, 497.
The Dutch poet and engraver Jan Luyken perfected in his language the "Metaphysical" style of poetry made popular in English by John Donne and George Herbert and Richard Crashaw. Luyken explores the central paradoxes of existence, and illustrates the matter with symbolic images. Luyken has been called "the most fertile and versatile etcher of the Dutch school, and, besides Romeyn de Hooghe and Gerard de Lairesse, the most imortant Dutch copper-engraver of the period after Rembrandt" (Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kuenstler).
Fore-Edge Painting of Lawn Tennis
Rogers, Samuel. Poems. London: Edward Moxon, 1839. $950
17 cm; 311 pages. Bound in gilt-stamped black morocco. Fine, bright FORE-EDGE PAINTING of women in Victorian dress playing lawn tennis. Very good.
Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de (1584-1648). Idea principis christiano-politici. Cologne: Constantinus Munich, 1650. $800
14 cm; [24], 795, 5 pages, including engraved title page and 103 engraved emblematic illustrations in decorative oval frames. Bound in contemporary vellum, titled in ink on spine. Yapp edges. Shelf worn and not bright, but hardly foxed and generally unblemished. Upper hinge split but holding. A good copy overall.
Reference: Praz 483-84.
This essay on political power and its symbols was first published in
Spanish in 1640, and came out in a Latin translation in 1649. This
small-format edition of 1650 apparently increases the number of engraved
emblems by one (earlier editions had 100 numbered emblems plus two
unnumbered; this edition has 101 numbered plates). The text falls into the
tradition of courtly instruction, refracting the lessons through a series of
symbolic images.
Fore-Edge Painting
Scott, Walter. The poetical works, volume 8 only. N.p.: N.d. $950
17 cm; 396 pages. Bound in gilt-stamped brown pebbled morocco. Fine FORE-EDGE PAINTING of a nude woman studying her reflection in a country pool.
Veen, Jan van der. Zinne-beelden, oft Adams appel. Verciert met seer aerdige Const-Plaeten musgaders syne oude ende nieuwe ongemeene bruydt-lofs ende zege-zangen. Amsterdam: Everhard Cloppenburgh, 1642. $5,000
First edition. 4to (21 cm) ; [24], 523, [1] pages (with errors in pagination). Title engraving and 50 copperplate engraved emblems by Salomon Savery (1594-1678), each emblem with a two-line caption in Dutch above and two-line translation into French below, and an explanatory stanza in Dutch on the facing page. Plate XIV a cancel, as usual in the first edition. Bound in half calf over speckled paper-covered boards, rebacked with recent leather in period style, retaining original boards. Trimmed a little close at top edge without loss, except for page numbers of last two leaves. Lightly toned with occasional spots.
Reference: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books, 846; Praz, 522.
Van der Veen's extraordinary emblem book, with his book of popular songs appended, was reprinted frequently into the 18th century, but the first edition offered here is its only appearance in the larger quarto format. The first impressions of the plates are crisp and luminous. Also the only edition to include French paraphrases of the couplets accompanying each emblem. Scarce and important.
Venne, Adraien van de. Tafereel van de Belacchende Werelt, en des self geluckige Eeuwe, Goet Rondt, met by-gevoegde Raesdel-Spreucken, aen-gevvese in de Boer-Achitege Eenvoudigheyt, op de Haegshe Kermis. s'Graven-Hage: Gedruckt voor den Autheur, 1635. $2,400
Quarto (22 cm); [16], 280 pages, included engraved title page and 12 half-page engraved plates in text. Roman, italic and Fraktur types. Each page within type-rule border, with an additional vertical rule separating text from shoulder notes. Panoramic woodcut head piece. Bound in contemporary vellum over flexible boards. Old bookplate or bookseller's ticket scratched out on front pastedown. One loose signature laid in. Pages evenly toned. Marginal worm trails in latter leaves.
Only edition of this volume of "pictures of the absurd world," composed
by the artist, illustrator and writer Adriaen van de Venne. The fine title
page and twelve half-page plates are masterpieces of the ridiculous and the
grotesque, focusing vividly on the street life of the Hague with its
circuses, crafty beggars, packs of dogs, nose-pickers and its silly
nobility. The text is as lively and idiosyncratic as the engravings.