Seven folding leaves. 8vo (248 x 171 mm.), orig. self-wrappers (minor worming), stitched as issued. “January 1858 in Sugamo onkagocho [Edo] by Naojiro.”

Odaiba are defensive artificial or floating islands constructed for defensive purposes. Following Perry’s first arrival in Edo Bay, the Tokugawa shogunate was thrown into great confusion. Not having a navy, the shogunate decided to build a series of odaiba (artificial islands with cannon batteries) to defend the bay. Engineers also conceived of floating odaiba that could be maneuvered.

This manuscript is an application addressed to the bugyo (senior government commissioners) requesting to construct such floating odaiba. In the beginning... More about Manuscript on paper entitled on upper wrapper “Ukiodaiba onuttae no ichijo utsushi”...

4 p.l., 27, [3] pp. Small 4to, attractive antique calf (title soiled & a little waterstained), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: W. du Gard for F. Coles, 1654.

“Third Edition Corrected and Enlarged.” Weston (1591-1652), canal builder and agriculturalist, while already having had considerable successful experience in farming in Surrey, made a series of observations on the agricultural methods of the Low Countries during his exile in Belgium in 1644-45, which changed English agriculture.

“Sir Richard’s account of Flemish husbandry was written about 1645, and addressed to his sons from abroad. This was circulated in manuscript, and there is no... More about A Discours of Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders: shewing the wonderful Improvement of Land...

Title within ruled border. 1 p.l., 20 pp., one blank leaf. Small 4to, attractive antique calf, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: S. & B. G[riffin] for N. Brooke, 1674.

Second edition. This work has been attributed by many to Sir John Pettus (ca. 1613-85), natural philosopher and politician, but this is probably erroneous. Sainfoin is a highly nutritious plant, which served as an important forage for livestock.

“A most interesting little book…whoever wrote it knew what he was talking about, and had evidently made himself thoroughly acquainted with the peculiarities and value of the plant as a farmer’s... More about St. Foine Improved: a Discourse shewing the Utility and Benefit which England hath and may...

One folding engraved plate. 22 pp. 4to, attractive antique half-calf & paste-paper boards, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Venice: G. Lironcurti, 1770.

First edition of this extremely rare work on the seed drill, an improvement on Jethro Tull’s invention. This seed drill, whose component parts are depicted on nine figures on the plate, was designed to efficiently plant corn seeds.

Fine copy. Stamp of the Rothamsted Experimental Station on blank portion of title. More about Il Piantatore o sia Nuovo Metodo di Piantare il Formento.

Folding engraved frontis. (short tear to image carefully repaired without loss). 3 p.l., 39 pp. Small 8vo, cont. half-calf & marbled boards, flat spine gilt. London: R. Roberts, 1699.

First edition of what is apparently the first English book solely devoted to tea. Ovington (1653-1731), chaplain to James II, upon the kings’ removal, was engaged by the East India Company and sailed for India, where he lived in Surat for two and a half years. While there, he became interested in the tea culture of the subcontinent.

“During the second half of the seventeenth century three drinks, coffee, chocolate, and tea, gradually became... More about An Essay upon the Nature and Qualities of Tea. Wherein are shown, I. The Soil and Climate...

Title within typographical border. 8 p.l., 303 pp. Small 4to, 18th-cent. mottled calf (carefully rebacked by Trevor Lloyd, some occasional browning & soiling), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: J.M. for R. Wodnothe, 1655.

Third edition, greatly enlarged (1st ed.: 1651), of one of Hartlib’s most substantial works, consisting chiefly of letters to Hartlib by Cressy Dymock and Robert Child. “The Legacie deals with a large variety of subjects, among which are Saint Foine; Ploughs and Carriages; Digging, Setting and Howing; Smut and Mildew; Orchards; Hemp and Flax; Manuring; Bees; Silke-worms; the general ignorance, and various experiments, etc. The... More about Samuel Hartlib his Legacy of Husbandry. Wherein are bequeathed to the Common-wealth of England,...

Title within typographical border (shaved at foot). 2 p.l., 14 pp., one blank leaf. Small 4to, attractive antique panelled calf (some shaving to bottom line or catchwords on several pages), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: Printed by J.C., 1651.

First edition. “The Reformed Husbandman…is sometimes attributed to Speed, although it was probably written by Cressy Dymock…It is a pamphlet of some 16 pages and full of moral reflections, a melodious exhortation to industry.”–Fussell, I, p. 45.

“The most visible impact of Hartlib’s circle lay in the numerous pamphlets that he published…They comprised letters and treatises solicited... More about The Reformed Husband-Man; or A Brief Treatise of the Errors, Defects, and Inconveniences of our...

Engraved vignette on title, seven folding engraved plates, & one engraved headpiece. 6 p.l., 84 pp. Large 4to, cont. vellum over boards (a little warped). Naples: G. Raimondi, 1754.

First edition of the great economist’s work on the conservation and preservation of grains. This edition was published under the name of Bartolommeo Intieri (1676-1757), economist, engineer, and mathematician, who had furnished his friend Galiani with the ideas on methods to prevent grain from being contaminated by insects. Intieri proposed that grain be dried in a heated kiln. This process would dissipate bad odors, eliminate humidity, kill most insects, and check the tendency of... More about Della Perfetta conservazione del Grano. Discorso di Bartolommeo Intieri.

Title within typographical border (border cropped at foot and catchword on A2 shaved). 3 p.l., 17 pp. Small 4to, attractive antique calf, spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: Printed H. Hills, 1651.

First edition of one of the first suggestions of the need to establish a school of agriculture in Britain. While various scholars have attributed this work to Samuel Hartlib (favored by McDonald), or Gabriel Plattes (favored by Fussell), it is now generally presumed that Cressy Dymock (fl. 1629-60), is the author. Hartlib, who served as the editor, has signed the four-page “To the Reader.”

“The book was inspired by the highest moral sentiments, as might be expected in that Puritan age. All misery, it declares, is due to the narrowness of our spirit and because our hearts are not enlarged above ourselves… it was nearly three hundred years before men were moved to action and to the founding of a University Chair in Agriculture and the Royal College of Agriculture.”–Fussell, I, pp. 44-45. More about An Essay for Advancement of Husbandry-Learning, or Propositions for the Erecting a Colledge of...

Engraved allegorical frontis. & seven large folding engraved plates. 8 p.l. (incl. frontis. & half-title), 80, [2], 56 pp., one leaf of errata. Large 4to, cont. vellum over boards. Milan: per M.A. Pandolfo Malatesta, 1718.

First edition of this rare and finely illustrated work on a new type of plough developed by the Marchese Borro (1672-1760), mathematician, mechanician, soldier, and poet, who lived in Tuscany. The author provides a detailed account of the various trials he performed while the plough was in development.

The fine plates, executed by the renowned Milanese artist Gaetano Bianchi, depict the various parts of the plough and the plough being... More about Dimostrazioni, e Prove sopra l’Attivita’ ed Uso vantaggioso del Gran coltro…

20 pp. 8vo, 19th-century brown half-cloth & marbled boards (spine a trifle rubbed), title on spine, spine gilt. [S.l.: 1737].

One of the very rare contemporary manuscript sale catalogues of the painting collection of the comtesse de Verrue (1670-1736), one of history’s greatest collectors of art as well as books. It is annotated with nearly all prices and a few buyers’ names. According to Lugt, there are no known printed catalogues of this sale of paintings — most likely never printed — and the Getty Provenance Index records 14 extant manuscript copies, all in institutional libraries, except this example.

“Verrue, may be best known today as Alexandre Dumas’s fictive dame volupté, a sobriquet she reputedly created and one that has too easily obscured her crucial role in the art world of early eighteenth-century Paris. She had the social confidence to renounce the traditional pattern of collecting that Crozat had eagerly embraced and turned from ‘serious’ Italian paintings to ‘petits sujets,’ bucolic landscapes, and amorous mythologies, primarily by painters of the Northern and French schools. Like Crozat, she shaped a remarkable and widely admired dwelling that was central to her identity and famous during her lifetime. The importance of each house was enhanced by the way it functioned. Each became a key site of artistic discourse, a place where art lovers and artists assembled, and a locus for assessing competing systems of value, where distinctive outlooks were forged, defined, and absorbed.”–Rochelle Ziskin, Sheltering Art (2012), p. 2. More about [Manuscript drop-titles]: Catalogue des Tableaux de Madame la Comtesse de Verrue dont la Vente a...

Large 8vo (272 x 195 mm.), orig. brown wrappers (wrappers wormed & text leaves wormed, all carefully repaired, throughout in extremities but very rarely touching an image), new stitching. [Japan]: mid-Edo.

A most handsomely illustrated manuscript depicting various scenes of joint manipulation to many parts of the body. The images are finely painted and in fresh bright condition.

Manipulative therapy has a long history in Japan. “Healing of the sick through rubbing of the body was known to the earliest Japanese physicians, who brought the art to a high state of development. Massage was early (pre-Nara period) linked with the treatment of fractures... More about Manuscript on paper, 12 double-page & 16 full-page illus. using brush & colors, 20...