Resultados de búsqueda: Libros de Antiquariaat FORUM BV

First edition of the extraordinary coloured plates of quadrupeds by the well-known French-American naturalist and painter John James Audubon (1785-1851), who, for this publication, worked together with his sons John Woodhouse and Victor Audubon. The plates are considered the finest animal prints published in America to this day. Unlike the Birds of America, it was produced entirely in the United States, making it the "largest successful color plate book project of 19th-century America" (Reese).After the publication of his highly acclaimed Birds of America, Audubon settled on the Hudson River and began working on the present series to document the animal life of North America. The plates were first published in 30 parts of 5 plates each and three separately published accompanying text volumes, written by John Bachman, appeared between 1846-1854. A second edition was published in 1856, but "the first edition is by far the best" (Sabin).Title-pages with some small scuff marks, a few plates with minor… Leer más

Amassed over the last fifty years and covering four centuries of relevant material, the present collection spans all aspects of the history and development of the breeding of Arabian horses. It comprises within itself many books from the Le Vivier collection: fine press books of racing and thoroughbred literature produced by Eugene Connett's famous Derrydale press, as well as numerous important items from the library of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria (1808-88), himself a great enthusiast of Arabic horses. Including items of exceptional rarity, such as the rare, beautifully illustrated first German edition of Friedrich von Eisenberg's famous riding school (1747), which lauds Arabian horses as "the finest produced by the Orient". Also, we here find the early Arabian Horse Registry of America Stud Books, and many items also bear presentation inscriptions from the authors (Carl Raswan, Gladys Brown Edwards, etc.). The common practice in such a specialized field, most of the publications here were issued for a… Leer más

A life-sized, hand-coloured photograph of the famous world map made around 1450 by Fra Mauro, the greatest medieval map of the world and the largest surviving European map of such an early date: an astonishing accomplishment of art history, cartography and photography. Perhaps the largest photograph ever made at the time, the “Naya Fra Mauro” belongs to a class of colossal early photographs that includes Eadweard Muybridge’s 13-sheet panorama of San Francisco (1878) - though each sheet measured only about 46 x 55 cm - and George R. Lawrence’s photograph of the Alton Limited on a 244 x 137 cm glass plate (1899). It also appears to be the first large-format map produced photographically.Fra Mauro’s map is “considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography” (Almagià). Containing hundreds of detailed illustrations and some 3000 descriptive texts, it was the most detailed repres-entation of the world so far produced. It remains one of the most important works in the history of cartography,… Leer más

[8], 206 pp.; [4], 181, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], “86” [= 80], [2 blank] pp.A hand-coloured copy of the third French edition of Linschoten's classic illustrated guide for travellers to the East and West Indies, termed by Lach ''the most important of the first-hand accounts published independently of the great travel collections'' (I.198). No other book contained so much useful intelligence on the East and West Indies. Unhindered by the censorship that constrained writers from the Iberian peninsula (details of seas and coasts in Asia and the Americas were military secrets), he included such information as sailing directions, physical descriptions of countries, and statistics on commerce and trade. The work was held in such high regard that for nearly a century, every Dutch ship sailing to Africa and Asia carried a copy of a Dutch edition of Linschoten. The 42 plates (11 large folding) are especially noteworthy, including 6 maps and several bird's-eye views, many with coats of arms of the regions… Leer más

[10], [8], [11] ll.Magnificent copy of one of the rare 1608 editions, with the German title, English dedication and note to the reader and text in English, French, German and Dutch. Known in English as The exercise of arms, it was written and illustrated by Jacques de Gheyn and quickly became a famous pictorial army manual for use of officers to teach the young recruits how to handle their weapons: the arquebus (part 1), musket (part 2) and pike (part 3).It gives an excellent picture of the successful army of the Dutch Republic after its reform by Prince Maurits, who (re)introduced exercises and discipline. It also immortalizes Prince Maurits as a military thinker and commander of the most disciplined army of his age.The book met immediate success and makes a considerable contribution to our knowledge of military history. Fully coloured copies like the present were produced largely for princes and other important persons and were probably coloured by De Gheyn himself who was certainly responsible for… Leer más

[4], 197 ll.First Dutch edition of Otto van Passau's devotional work (dated 20 days after the original German edition), the first Dutch book extensively illustrated with woodcuts. The Gouda Dialogus Creaturarum was published a month or two later, in June 1480. Each of the 24 chapters opens with a woodcut illustration, showing a pious woman (the loving soul) taking advice from a king (the 24 elders of the Apocalypse). In each chapter one of 24 biblical wise men (the elders of the Apocalypse) teaches the soul how to live as a good Christian. Our copy is richly and beautifully adorned with decorated initials supplied by hand and is rubricated throughout. The work was immensely popular and there are many manuscripts and early editions in both German and Dutch. Our first edition of the Dutch translation is of the utmost importance for the history of the text: serving as the source for all subsequent Dutch editions (as well as manuscripts). Some library stamps at foot of first leaf. In very good condition,… Leer más

The West-Indische Paskaert engraved by Pieter Goos, in its rare first state, a nautical chart prepared for the Dutch West India Company (WIC) as an aid to crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the trading regions of the Americas and visiting trading posts in Africa. It shows parts of the east coast of North America, both coasts of South America, Mediterranean Europe and the west coast of Africa. Many West-Indische Paskaerten, as these navigational charts were called, were reprinted over and over from new states of the copperplates. For more than a century Dutch and foreign sea farers profited from their use on transatlantic journeys. The great cartographer Willem Jansz. Blaeu (1571-1638) published the first West-Indische Paskaert around 1630 using manuscript charts and other documents of the Atlantic and its coasts, including information provided by the Dutch WIC navigators who sailed these routes. Being one of the first practical uses of the Mercator projection, Blaeu's small-scale nautical chart was the… Leer más

[2 blank], [34]; [5 blank], [62 incl. a few blank], [1 blank] pp. plus 8 double leaves of decorated paper and [36], [4 blank]; [2], [2 blank] pp. of 18th-century additions.A unique, fascinating and unpublished manuscript containing the account of a diplomatic mission to Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire in the year 1570. De Braeckle (1540-1571), a Flemish physician, assisted Charles Rijm (Karl Rym), Baron de Bellem (ca. 1533-1584), Maximilian II's ambassador to Constantinople, probably as his secretary. He wrote an account of his journey, which contains fascinating details about the places he visited, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, incidents, etc. Leaving Prague on 13 March 1570, the delegation passed through Vienna, Hungary and Czechoslovakia before entering Ottoman territory, where they visited the mosques and caravanserais (inns) of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (ca. 1505-1579), Grand Vizier of Sultan Selim II (1524-1574) who ruled the Turks at the time of Rijm and Braeckle's journey. From… Leer más

[160] ll.A Rouen Book of Hours of outstanding quality and in slightly larger than usual format, commissioned by a female patron who is portrayed in the last miniature awaiting the arrival of the Messiah.The style of illumination is typical of that practised in Rouen during the late 15th century. Characteristic features include the profuse use of gold highlights on draperies and hillsides, often cross-hatched; cross-hatching of grassy areas in landscapes; a palette predominantly based on pink, blue, brown and green, and the use of grey for the modelling of facial features, men having rather swarthy flesh, and women very pale skin; the rather peremptory manner of painting hands; the grey-blue acanthus on flat gold backgrounds for borders. Also the liturgical use points to Rouen as the place of production: the sparse calendar includes St Romanus (23 October) in gold, as well as St Evodius (8 October) and Mellonus (22 October), all three were bishops of Rouen; Romanus and Mellonus also appear in the… Leer más

The first map of the Arabian peninsula ever printed, from a woodcut, here finely coloured by a contemporary hand and adorned with unique, hand-drawn illumination added by a contemporary artist. The map was published in the first atlas printed outside Italy, the first atlas to be illustrated with woodcut maps. Remarkably, the hand-drawn vignette illustrations include a depiction of the relief of Makkah (Mecca), besieged by Abrahah, through the Ababeel birds, who pelted the attacking army of war elephants with burning stones from the pits of the fires of hell. The image shows a gigantic blue-and-gold Ababeel bird above the city, engulfed in flames - not only one of the earliest depictions of Makkah but also an amazing example of cross-cultural exchange of narratives during the early Renaissance, proving a Western illustrator’s familiarity with a Middle Eastern tradition famously referenced in the Qur’an (sura 105, known as al-Fil, The Elephant): "Wa ’arsala ’Aalayhim tayran ’Ababeel, Tarmeehim… Leer más

Exceptionally large armillary sphere with rich calligraphical and ornamental decoration as an image of the universe. The celestial sphere is surrounded in the centre by rings with the signs of the zodiac (outside) and various planet symbols. The names of the zodiac signs and months are engraved in Arabic. Signed and dated by the artist, an "Alexander", in the year 1125 AH. A nearly identical object is kept at the Globe Museum of the Austrian National Library at Vienna (item GL. 214), there classified as "Persian/Arabic". While simple celestial globes are not uncommon in the trade, elaborate specimens of the present size (53 cms) are very rare. Slightly soiled and corroded, but hardly rubbed.

Finely hand-coloured copy of the 1766-1799 Netherlands edition (in French) of Buffon's justly famous Histoire naturelle, the complete first series, covering the formation of the earth, humans, mammalian quadrupeds and apes, reptiles and amphibians, birds, fishes and even minerals, also describing the royal collection of Louis XV. Buffon's work presents ''for the first time a complete survey of natural history in popular form'' (PMM). The present set, in the work’s rarest and most expensive form, is exquisite. The subscription notices periodically mention copies printed on fine paper, but they do not mention hand-coloured copies. Landwehr, discussing the first Dutch-language edition (no. 46, by the same publisher) cites contemporary sources referring to four forms of publication: on regular paper, on large paper, with hand-coloured plates and (most expensive of all) with hand-coloured plates and vignettes.Buffon opens the first volume with an essay called "Théorie de la terre", where "for the first… Leer más

[50] ff. [a–g6, H8].Very rare Cologne edition of “The Seven Sages of Rome”, a popular mediaeval cycle of stories about wise counsellors and wicked women which has its ultimate roots in the Middle East, where it is usually known as “The Book of Sindbad”. This Latin edition (the seventh altogether) further boasts a series of woodcuts which count among the earliest illustrations of any version of Alf layla wa-layla.The frame narrative tells the story of prince Diocletian, who is falsely accused by his jealous stepmother, but is finally set free by the seven wise men (corresponding to the Seven Sages of Greece). These seven masters tell a story each, over seven successive days. The narrative’s oriental elements are derived partly from the the Old Testament (Joseph and Potiphar), but principally from its Arabian sources: the present version shares four stories with “The Book of Sindbad”, the main difference being that “the sages tell only one story each instead of the two or more in the Eastern… Leer más

[7] ll., 43 plates; [1] leaf, LVII plates, [4] ll.Renard's famous but rare work, noted for the spectacular imagery of colourful but also bizarre tropical fishes, crabs and lobsters from the Indo-Pacific, being the first colour-plated fish book, here in its rare second edition. The book contains 100 plates with 460 originally and extraordinary hand-coloured copper engravings, divided over two volumes with their own half-title ('Histoire naturelle des plus rare curiositez de la mer des Indes'), of 415 fishes, 41 crustaceans, two stick insects, a dugong and even a mermaid, all living in the Indian Ocean between the East Indies. Sometimes the descriptions specifically refer to fishes of some islands in the East Indies, as Ambon, the Moluccas or Buton, but they also contain references to the "fishes of the Antilles, Brazil" (Sabin) and Mauritius. The illustrations in the first volume seems to be quite realistic, in contrast to those in the second volume, which are sometimes quite surreal, which is even… Leer más

[10], 466, [6] ll.First English edition of Ludovico di Varthema's famous account of travels to Arabia, Syria, Persia, Ethiopia, India and the East Indies: a highly important and adventurous narrative including his 1503 visit to Mecca and Medina, the first recorded visit of a European (probably of any non-Muslim) to the Islamic holy cities. "Varthema's Itinerario, first published in 1510, had an enormous impact at the time, and in some respects determined the course of European expansion towards the Orient" (Howgego). It is here combined with various other travel accounts, including some taken from a collection by d'Anghiera. Varthema's account became a bestseller as soon as it appeared in 1510 and went through about twenty editions in various languages in the next fifty years. It certainly provided many Europeans with their first glimpse of Islamic culture and of non-European cultures in general.With a contemporary manuscript table of contents and an occasional marginal manuscript note in the same… Leer más

A pair of Cruchley's large, highly detailed library globes, showing the most accurate and up-to-date mid-nineteenth-century terrestrial and celestial data. While the terrestrial globe precisely portrays the earth divided into the mid-19th-century nations and states, the celestial globe shows a more wonderous, imaginative depiction of the heavens. Mythical figures and the signs of the zodiac are depicted among the constellations in a captivating way.George Frederick Cruchley (1796/97-1880) was an English map-maker, publisher, book- and map seller, based in London. He started out as an apprentice with the renowned English cartographer, engraver and publisher Aaron Arrowsmith (1750-1823). After Arrowsmith's death, Cruchley established his own business in London. He particularly made a name for himself by acquiring the stock of the acclaimed firm of John Cary (ca. 1754-1835) and publishing his own maps and globes alongside Cary's. Apart from his globes is Cruchley best known for his detailed plans of… Leer más

[17] ll. plus plates."Extremely rare" (Tooley) 1828 edition of Herring's finest work, the outcome of his fascination with horse racing in general and the St. Leger Stake in particular. "In the writer's estimation, the first series of the St. Leger winners contains the very best of Herring prints . . . they were engraved by Sutherland, a more competent aquatinter and colourist than his successors who handled these race-horses" (Siltzer). This is the second edition of this series of wonderful racehorse portraits. Very slight offsetting to text. Boards darkened and worn at the edges, internally in fine condition and untrimmed. A rare work with beautiful horse plates and detailed information.l Cf. Podeschi 128 (1824 ed. with different title, with 10 plates plus extra plate for 1825); Siltzer 139-146 (various eds.).

[32], “272” [= 268], 202, [2] pp.Robert Estienne’s ground-breaking critical edition of the Greek New Testament, including variant readings from 15 manuscripts (plus the printed New Testament text of the 1514 Computensian Polyglot), mostly of the manuscripts from the French King François I’s Bibliotheque Royale, but most importantly including for the first time the 5th-century manuscript later known as the Codex Bezae, then in a monastic library in Lyon. Each of these sources was designated by a Greek letter in Estienne’s shoulder notes in the gutter mergin giving the variants. Estienne proved himself the consummate scholar-printer, strongly influenced by Erasmus, producing one of the greatest monuments of Renaissance erudition. This opened up opportunities for further research and for new interpretations of the New Testament text, opportunities often more appreciated by Protestants than by the conservative Catholics of the Council of Trent. The book frequently came under fire. The three sizes of… Leer más

[3], [1 blank], 40 pp. plus frontispiece, portrait and 99 double-page plates.The Lord Wardington copy of the last edition (1737 with later substitutions by the publisher, probably issued ca. 1762) of Germany’s most famous 18th-century world atlas in an exceptionally fine binding, commissioned in Vienna around 1800, and with the frontispiece and all maps coloured by an 18th-century hand. After a 40-page introduction and descriptions by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, the atlas contains a celestial chart in 2 hemispheres (with pictorial constellations) surrounded by 6 smaller cosmological diagrams; a Copernican solar system; a world map in eastern and western hemispheres plus 4 smaller projections (2 polar and 2 centred on Europe and the South Pacific); the usual maps of the continents and numerous regions in Europe (including postal maps and maps of river valleys); but also maps of the Black Sea and surroundings (including one with the whole of Turkey); Egypt; the Persian (Iranian) Empire; the Ottoman… Leer más

VIII, 440; VIII, “116” [= 416]; [2], 167, [1 blank], [8] pp. plus 65 plates.Only copy known with all engraved plates printed in colour, of the first edition of an Italian florilegium. The 65 engravings really stand out and are sometimes printed in up to 6 different colours. The text is written by Filippo Arena (1708-1789), a Jesuit professor of mathematics and philosophy at the University of Palermo, with a real passion for botany. "But because La natura, e coltura de' fiori was printed in Sicily, an island far from the principal intellectual centres of Europe, his work became known only to a handful of contemporaries, and his significant contributions to the history of botany were never fully recognized. … Volume one is devoted to a general discussion of botany … In fact, it contains a remarkably advanced dissertation on the sexual generation of plants, including the function of pollen and the importance of its transmission by insects, a discovery that has traditionally been attributed to the… Leer más