Finely illustrated manuscript of Tale of Ise on smooth & thick torinoko paper with 30 full-page & one double-page paintings, employing sumi ink, various washes, sprinkled gold, & gold paint. Leaves of text underpainted in gold with delicate floral devices. Written throughout in a fine calligraphic cursive hand. 34; 35; 33 leaves. Three vols. Small 4to (234 x 171 mm.), retchoso binding, orig. gold & blue-green silk brocade over semi-stiff wrappers, gold endpapers, gold-patterned manuscript labels on upper cover. [Japan]: early to mid-Edo.

A very beautifully illustrated manuscript of Tale of Ise, one of the earliest and most famous literary... More

53 fine plates on 30 sheets. 2 p.l., xxxix, 99, [4] pp. 4to, cont. Spanish green morocco, cover with gilt fillets round sides, flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine, characteristic Spanish marbled endpapers, a.e.g. [Madrid: en la Imprenta Real de la Gazeta, 1781].

First edition — and a superb copy in contemporary Spanish green morocco — of one of the most beautiful and influential of the Spanish writing books; this work and that of Palomares, published in 1776, made Spain an 18th-century center for calligraphy and fine handwriting.

The calligraphic world of later eighteenth-century Spain was formed... More

Two folding engraved facsimiles (one in red & black). xxviii, 583 pp.; 2 p.l., 473 pp. Two vols. Large 8vo, cont. red straight-grained half morocco & glazed red paper boards bound in Vienna for Archduke Karl (“Carl Ludwig”), flat spines gold-tooled & lettered in compartments, the Archduke’s initials “CL” in top compartment. Paris: De Bure, 1815.

[bound with]:(—).

Catalogue des Livres rares et précieux…provenant de la Vente de feu M. le Comte de Mac-Carthy-Reagh à vendre aux prix marqués à chaque Article. [iii]-vi, 57, [1] pp. 8vo. Paris: De Bure frères, 1817.

[bound with]:

(—). Liste des Prix des Livres… 1... More

Mostly 8vo or small 8vo, bound in the original wrappers or boards, some stitched as issued, some self-bound. Germany: 1795-1840.

A collection of about 84 publishers’ and booksellers’ catalogues coming from the Wittelsbach library at Tegernsee, the “summer home” library of the royal family of Bavaria. This collection offers an excellent view of how the royal family of Bavaria acquired new books for their personal reading pleasure and use. The kings and dukes of Bavaria had considerable intellectual interests and these catalogues reflect their varied activities. The catalogues list both new publications and antiquarian material; the subjects range from music... More

23, 2, 2, 4, 3, 3, 22, 24, 12; 38, 28, 16; 15, 1, 20, 9 folding leaves. Five full-page woodblock maps. Woodblock-printed. Five kwŏn in three volumes. Small folio (384 x 202 mm.), orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, with handwritten titles on upper covers, old stitching. Daegu: Inhŭngjaesa, 1869.

First edition of this famous biography of the 13th-century Korean scholar Ch’u Chŏk 秋適 (1246-1317), which establishes him as the author of the famous Myŏngsim pogam 明心寶鑑 [Ch. Mingxin baojian; The Precious Mirror for Enlightening the Mind], the first book ever translated from Literary Chinese into a Western language. Compiled by... More

Cum Commentariis C.G. Bacheti…& observationibus D.P. de Fermat…Accessit Doctrinae Analyticae inventum novum, collectum ex variis eiusdem D. de Fermat Epistolis. Large engraved vignette on title, several finely engraved headpieces & initials, & a few woodcut diagrams in the text. 6 p.l., 64, 341, 48 pp., one leaf of errata. Folio, cont. speckled calf (carefully rebacked with the orig. spine laid-down, light browning as usual, two corners discretely repaired), spine richly gilt. Toulouse: B. Bosc, 1670.

First edition, and a very fine and fresh copy. This edition is the first to contain Fermat’s observations on the Arithmetica of Diophantus, the first... More

45 woodcut illus. in the text. 29 folding leaves. Three vols. in one. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers (rather rubbed, some light dampstaining), remains of block-printed title label on upper cover, modern stitching. [Kyoto]: Osumi Seibei, [Foreword dated 1311, colophon dated 1675].

The third edition — preceded by an undated early 17th-century undated edition and a 1659 edition — of this collection of dissertations on moxibustion and acupuncture. It concerns moxibustion treatment for adults and children with 36 pictures of adults and nine of children, illustrating the locations of acupuncture points with explanations of efficacies. This edition is notable for presenting... More

Scroll (210 x 3690 mm.), endpapers of gold with silk brocade backing, wooden roller. [Japan: late Edo].

This attractive scroll, executed by a highly accomplished artist, comprises of 12 erotic scenes (the well-known “set of 12“ format), in vivid coloring, depicting a range of sexual activities. As in many shunga handscrolls, the paintings feature a sequence of lovemaking positions in no apparent order. The scenes are finely painted with considerable detail, employing much gold, silver, and other metallic pigments. Throughout, the artist has used a fine brush to achieve great detail of fabric, hair, and faces. All the women have... More

29 folding leaves. 8vo (229 x 156 mm.), later semi-stiff silk-brocade-covered wrappers (covers a bit wormed), gold- & silver-speckled endpapers, old stitching. [Japan]: on final leaf (in trans.): “3 August 1483.”

A beautiful and fine calligraphic manuscript of “Guhishō,” a text on waka poetic theory that, along with “Gukenshō” 愚見抄, “Sangoki” 三五記, and “Kirihioke” 桐火桶, made up the writings collectively referred to as the “Cormorant and Heron Forgeries” (Usagikei Gisho 鵜鷺系偽書). These four texts were attributed to Fujiwara no Teika (1162-1241), the “single most influential figure in the history of Japanese classical poetry. [He] was the supreme arbiter of poetry... More

425 full-page woodcut ports. 16 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, old stitching. Changzhou: Privately Printed, 1830-31.

First edition, rare and a very fine set, of this richly illustrated book, a collection of woodblock portraits of historical figures accompanied by short texts. The individuals illustrated, beginning with Cang Jie, the legendary inventor of the Chinese script, lived from antiquity to as recently as the Ming dynasty. Ye Shusheng 葉樹聲 and Yu Minhui 余敏輝, in their Historical Outline of Private Printing in the Lower Yangzi Region in the Ming and Qing Periods (Ming-Qing Jiangnan siren keshu shilüe 明清江南私人刻書史略, 2000), write that... More

24 double-page & 22 full-page finely drawn & colored paintings. 48 folding leaves. 8vo (268 x 186 mm.), orig. patterned wrappers (a little worn), later stitching. [Japan: after 1800].

Japan’s large-scale colonization of Hokkaido island (“Ezo”) began in the mid-18th century. Hata (1764-1808), a Tokugawa bakufu official who served in Hokkaido from 1798 to 1800, wrote a self-illustrated text concerning the ethnology of the Ainu, the aboriginal inhabitants of the island; it is the earliest work on the ethnology of these people. A copy of his manuscript was prepared ca. 1800 with 15 woodblock illustrations in orihon format, and the... More

Circular silver photographic print, 92 mm. in diameter, mounted on paper incorporating a printed title and descriptive letterpress dated August 1890 with the signatures of two of Herschel’s sons, mounted on card. Some small areas of abrasions to the paper surface. In the original frame, by Ryman & Co. of Oxford, made from the rungs of the ladder to the telescope. With a fragment of an original (?) printed descriptive notice on the back.

This is the earliest photograph of a scientific instrument and the first photograph deliberately taken to record an object prior to its disappearance (the earliest “record”... More