Achilles Tatius: (Saumaise, Claude, ed.:) (Greek letter) Erotikon [...]
Sive de Clitophontis & Leucippes Amoribus libri VIII ex Editione Cl. Salmasii. Lugd. Batavor. [Leiden]: Apud Franciscum Hegerum 1640.
24mo., pp. [xxiv] 752 [xxx], including engraved title. Initial and final blanks removed, one simply-repaired horizontal tear to 2nd leaf of preface (not affecting legibility). Some faint browning and spotting (esp. to edges of title), a few blank edges worn, small waterstain to lower margin of first leaves, one or two small pencil marginal notes. Early blind-ruled calf, recently rebacked with gilt ruling and stamp, green morocco label with gilt, sides lightly rubbed and boards marked. Later ink inscription of J. Powell(?) to title. Claude Saumaise’s (1588-1653) edition of this Greek Romance. Saumaise (or Salmasius) was in 1631 appointed Chair of History at Leiden, a position which had lain empty since Scaliger’s death 22 years earlier (Sandys II 309). Willems 1611. Graesse I 13. Ref: 23203show full image..
Aimoinus Monachus [Aimoin, of Fleury]: Historiae Francorum Lib. V.
Ex Veterib. exemplaribus multo emendatiores. Cum indice copiosissimo, qui etiam locorum communium ac epitomes vicem supplet. Parisiis [Paris]: apud Andream Wechelum 1567.
8vo., pp. [viii]. 795. [xxxv]. Lacking final blank. Upper margin trimmed closely, just touching running title on one or two leaves. Some light browning and a few spots, some pencil underlining, small marginal waterstain to a few leaves of index. 18th-cent. marbled calf, spine in six compartments with raised bands, gilt decoration and title, gilt sides, edges and endpapers marbled, slight rubbing to corners and joints. Ownership inscription of Abraham Girard dated 1663 to title. The chief work of Aimoin (c.960-c.1010), a French chronicler and monk in the monastery of Fleury. The book covers history up until the 12th century, with Aimoin’s contribution ending in the time of Clovis II (died c.657) and remainder completed by other hands. Adams A 398. Ref: 22606
Albinovanus Pedo (pseudo-) [‘Severus, Cornelius’] [Bembo, Pietro] (Le Clerc, Jean, ed.:) Elegiae III,
et fragmenta [...] (Bound with) Aetna, & quae supersunt fragmenta [...] accessit Petri Bembi Aetna. Amstelaedami [Amsterdam], apud Davidem Mortier 1715.
2 works in 1 vol., 12mo., pp. [xlviii] 180 [xxviii]; [vi] 224 [xxiv]. Engraved frontispiece to first work, titles-pages to both works in red and black. First work also has three numismatic plates; second work also has a fold-out plate of Mount Etna erupting. First three leaves of second work, together, coming loose. Otherwise, age-yellowing, light spotting, but a good copy, bound in contemporary blind-panelled vellum boards, title faintly inked on spine. 20th-cent. pencil inscription along top margin of frontispiece, old purchase-note to f.f.e.p. recto. Latin poetical works accompanied by Latin prose paraphrases, including a pseudonymous set of three elegies, and a pseudo-Virgilian work on Mount Etna and the origin of volcanic activity (the ‘Aetna’), which has been attributed by different commentators to Virgil, Severus Cornelius and Lucilius Iunior, and was written before 79. These illustrated editions are reissues of ones of 1703, with new title-pages (Schweiger). The author of the ‘Aetna’ “argues that the controlling force behind eruptions is wind operating at high pressure in narrow subterranean channels, and that the volcanic fire, produced by friction, gets a nutritive material especially in the lava-stone” (OCD). The elegies were attributed to Albinovanus Pedo, a friend of Ovid, by the scholar Josephus Justus Scaliger, whose notes are included here; however, the third one “has been put down as late as the 15th century as the work of an Italian imitator, there being no MSS. and no trace of the poem before the publication of the editio princeps of Ovid in 1471” (Ency. Brit., 11th edn.). Schweiger III 704, II 571. Ref: 21359
Alighieri, Dante: La Divina Commedia.
Londra [London]: Presso C Corrall; a spese di G. Pickering 1823; 1822.
2 vols., 32mo., pp. [iv] 191 [i]; [iii] 194-374 [iv] + engraved frontispiece and half-title in vol. 1. A few spots and one or two tiny marginal flaws. Original purple cloth, faded and a little soiled, neatly rebacked with spines laid down, paper labels rubbed, corners slightly worn. From William Pickering’s ‘Diamond Classics’ series of miniature books; the bindings measure 53mm x 90mm. Ref: 23226show full image..
Almedingen, E.M.: The Little Stairway.
London: Hutchinson & Co. 1960.
First edition, 8vo., pp. [xii] 13-224. Slight tanning to endpapers and faint foxing to edges. Dark red cloth, gilt and grey stamp to spine, grey paper dustjacket a bit dusty and foxed. Ref: 22473
Angeli, Pietro degli: (Tizio, Roberto, ed.:) Syrias
hoc est expeditio illa celeberrima Christianorum Principum, qua Hierosolyma ductu Goffredi Bulionis Lotharingiae Ducis à Turcarum tyrannide liberata est Eiusdem Votivum Carmen in D. Catharinam. Florentiae [Florence], apud Philippum Iunctam [Filippo Giunta] 1591.
First edition. 4to., pp. [xxiv] ‘496’ (i.e. 488). Two possible library-stamp removals on title-page (one skirting the edge of the Giunta printer’s vignette), repair to upper margin blank, pop. 447-448, foxing and occasional modern pencil markings, bound in early vellum boards, title in gilt on spine, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, edges mottled red. First printing of this verse account describing the liberation of Jerusalem by the legendary crusader Godfrey of Bouillon (c.1060-1100). Pietro degli Angeli of Barga (1517-96) a professor of Latin and Greek at Pisa, produced the present work in imitation of Torquato Tasso’s ‘Gerusalemme liberata’. With commentary by Roberto Tizio. Not in Adams. CNCE 1798. Ref: 21550
Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea: [Greek letter] Metaphrasis tou psalteros, dia stichon heroikon.
[Latin] Apolinarij interpretatio Psalmorum, versibus heroicis. Londini [London]: Excudebat Georgius Bishop 1590.
8vo., pp. 202 [vi]. Text in Greek, title with woodcut border. Small hole to title (from overenthusiastic embossment) affecting two characters. Light browning, marginal staining, a tiny marginal wormhole to a few leaves. Contemporary English blind-ruled sheep, quite rubbed, some pits and wormholes with loss to head and tail of spine (but sound), no pastedowns or hinge lining (revealing printed binder’s waste), f.f.e.p. partly sprung. Bookplate of the North Library (of Shirburn Castle) to inside of upper board, embossment of the Earls of Macclesfield to title and first two leaves, small old paper shelfmark labels to spine. The first English edition of this paraphrase of the Psalms by Apollinaris (d. 390), Bishop of Laodicea, reproducing the 1552 Paris editio princeps by Turnebus (which was also reprinted there in 1580). This copy is from the library of the Earls of Macclesfield, with their embossment and armorial shelfmark bookplate. STC 2352. ESTC S122222. Ref: 23585show full image..
Aquinas, Saint Thomas: Catena aurea D. Thomae Aquinatis Doctoris Angelici
in quatuor Iesu Christi evangelia. Pars prima: in Matthaeum et Marcum. [...] Pars secunda: in Lucam et Ioannem. Neapoli [Naples]: ex tipographia Virgiliana 1845.
4 vols. in 2. 4to., pp. [ii] iv 426; 456 + portrait frontis. to Vol. 2. Some foxing; Vol. 1 has light damp-stain to upper edges and small paper flaw to upper edge of f.f.e.p.; Vol. 2 has small neat contemporary repairs to outer margins of pp. 453-6 (not affecting text). Vellum boards, spines decorative gilt in 6 compartments with 2 brown labels, edges sprinkled blue. Rubbed and lightly soiled; Vol. 2 has a little wear to head of spine and 1 corner, and soiling to back cover. Bookplates of the art historians Julian and Christa Gardner to front pastedowns. Ref: 23160show full image..
Athanasius, Saint, Patriarch of Alexandria: [...] Opera quae reperiuntur omnia.
Editio nova, juxta Parisinam Anni MDCXXVI adornata, [...] Coloniae [i.e. Cologne; but Leipzig?]: Sumptibus Mauritii Georgii Weidmanni 1686.
2 vols., folio, pp. [xxxii] (incl. engraved frontispiece portrait), 1087 [i]; [viii] 704, 138 [cxl]. Title pages in red and black, text in facing columns of Latin and Greek. Bound without 2 blank leaves in vol. 2 (Ooo4 & 2M4). Browned throughout and a bit spotted, first few leaves in each vol. soiled, marginal worming to c.10 leaves in vol. 1 (well clear of text), a few marginal paper flaws. Early blind-panelled mottled calf, spine decorated in gilt with red morocco labels, joints, endcaps & corners expertly renewed, boards showing some scrapes (one with loss to leather) and old flaking, a little chipping here and there. Inscription to upper pastedowns: ‘Edward Harbin the present of his dear mother December 20th 1819. One in a string of 17th-century printings of the collected works of Athanasius, with Latin translation by Petrus Nannius (1500-1557) & others; the Heidelberg 1601 (editio princeps of the Greek text) was followed by a Paris 1626/7, which is largely reprinted here. Though soon superseded by the great Benedictine edition (reprinted by Migne in the Patrologia), this edition was nonetheless popular, oft-cited, and “remarkable for its handsome and legible Greek type” (Rose, New Bio. Dict., 1857 II 288). VD17 3:009104G. Graesse I 243. Brunet I 534 (note, but dated 1687). Ebert (Browne) I 111. Ref: 23313show full image..
Baerle, Caspar van: Poematum
editio nova. Priore castigatior et altera parte auctior. Lugdu. Batavorum [Leiden], ex officina Elzeviriana 1631.
First edition thus (see below). 24mo., pp. [xvi] 511 [i]. Engraved frontispiece. Some browning, bound in contemporary vellum boards, overlapping long edges; binding slightly skewed, loosening from text block at upper hinge. Printed for the first time here (pp. 164-169) is a poem celebrating the Dutch capture from the Portuguese, in 1630, of the city of Olinda in Pernambuco, Brazil. Van Baerle (1584-1648), sometime professor in Amsterdam, later published an illustrated history of the Dutch in Brazil. Willems 344. Ref: 22815show full image..
