Eight vols. 8vo, later wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching, heads & tails of spines covered in blue silk (a few worn). [China]: Preface dated 1758.

A commentary, nominally by the Qianlong emperor (1711-99, reigned 1735-96), of the Spring and Autumn Annals, one of the Confucian classics. The commentary rejects a previously current interpretation of the Annals in favor of a reading favorable to the Manchu monarchy.

The Spring and Autumn Annals is a very terse and apparently entirely documentary account of events involving the state of Lu in Chinese antiquity. It covers the period 722-481... More

24 brush & ink illus. (some double-page), many in fine color or heightened in red ink. 95 folding leaves. 8vo (238 x 168 mm.), orig. decorated wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: “copied 1805.”

An early copy of the Japanese account of the first official Russian mission to Japan, headed by the Russian military officer Adam Kirillovich Laxman (or Laksman) (1766-1806?). With this mission, Russia became the first foreign country to request a secluded Japan to broaden its trade relations beyond China and the Dutch. Commissioned by Catherine the Great to return three Japanese shipwrecked sailors to their home country, Laxman’s expedition... More

x, 557, [1] pp. 8vo, cont. green sheep-backed green boards maroquiné, single gilt fillet round sides, flat spine gilt. Sion: A. Advocat, 1812.

First edition of this uncommon account of the mountainous canton of Valais (then known as the “département du Simplon”) in Switzerland. Schiner, a physician on the medical faculty at Montpellier, describes the geography, natural history, most notable buildings, costumes, cuisines and wines, commercial activities, roads, climate, structure of government, the mountains and glaciers, forests, etc., etc. The author also discusses the prevalence of goiter amongst the population, along with other diseases common to the canton.

Fine copy... More

12 vols. in 11. Many with engraved plates. Large 4to, each self-bound with cont. paste-paper spines, uncut. N.p. (but Munich & Bonn): 1808-23.

A fine collection of offprints, mostly on botanical subjects, by the Jesuit priest Schrank (1747-1835). Before being appointed professor of botany at the University of Münich (he was the first director of the University’s botanical garden), Schrank was professor of mining, agriculture, forestry, botany, and zoology at the University of Ingolstadt. Acting several times as rector during the years of his professorship at Ingolstadt and Landshut, he defended the interests of the universities during the French and... More

Five full-page woodcut illustrations in the text. 77; 76 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, orig. stitching. Chengdu: Jinling da xue [Jinling University Chinese Culture Research Institute], 1939.

First edition. Shang (1902-91), archeologist, epigraphist, and calligrapher, was one of the greatest Chinese archeologists of the 20th century. He was an authority on oracle bones and published widely on the subject. He was also well-versed in the tomb culture of the Central Plains and participated in an excavation of a large Han Dynasty tomb in Changsha (Hunan).

The present work, on the archeological excavations of tombs in Changsha... More

Four vols. Small 8vo, orig. printed wrappers (some dampstaining throughout), orig. stitching. Shanghai: Zhonghua shu ju [Zhonghua Book Company], 1936.

The series Sibu beiyao [Essential Writings of the Four Branches of Literature] (1920-33), consisted of edited reprints of 336 titles of rare literary and historical collections organized according to the classical method of the four categories of learning. The series was the brain-child of the enterprising Lufei Kui (1896-1941), educational reformer, pioneer of script reform, and founder of the Zhonghua Book Company, in 1912. The company soon became the second-most influential publishing firm in Republican China, surpassed only by the... More

Seven unnumbered leaves. Small folio (295 x 195 mm.), attractive antique marbled boards. “Madrid: 24 October 1748.”

A curious manuscript on solutions to combat growing difficulties in harvesting and processing silk in Valencia. In 56 ordenanzas, Jiménez de Quesada lists the ways in which the Torcidos factory plans on reforming its production methods. He cites several experts on silk, such as “Dr. Juan Bautista Ayolde,” and laws that impact the manufacture of the raw materials. Techniques from other regions are also mentioned.

In fine condition. Tightly trimmed, just touching text in a few instances. More

1 p.l., ten numbered leaves. Folio (285 x 190 mm.), attractive antique marbled boards. [Valencia: ca. 1750].

An interesting document that describes the founding of an association to support Valencia’s principal silk production facility. Beginning in the 15th century, Valencia built a robust silk industry thanks to close ties with Genoa, which exported silk to the eastern Mediterranean. Within a century, silk had become one of Valencia’s most important exports and by the 17th century the city had consolidated control over the harvesting and manufacture of silk fiber. The mass-production of woven silk helped revitalize the Valencian economy in the... More

48 parts & one index in 20 vols. 8vo, orig. yellow wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Kubota]: Meitokukan Academy, 1827.

Second edition (1st ed.: 1825) and rare; this was printed in the Kubota domain in northwestern Japan. Following the death of his father in 1785, Yoshimasa Satake (1775-1815), became daimyo of the Kubota domain in Dewa Province (modern-day Akita Prefecture). He instituted a number of reforms, ordering the planting of extensive windbreaks to improve crop yields; encouraged the mining, silk, and lacquerware industries; instituted land reforms; dismissed incompetent and corrupt officials; and hired forestry management... More

Brush & ink drawings in several vols. Ca. 1500 folding leaves. Ten vols. Thick 8vo (280 x 195 mm.), later wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: from the final leaf of Vol. 10 (in approximate trans.): “The Buddhist practitioner Banjin copied this in Kinko [in today’s Kagoshima Prefecture] in 1721. I visited Banjin in 1737 and had conversations with him, [signed] Soko.”

Manuscript excerpts dating from after 1646, taken from Shuo fu, a collectanea (congshu) by Tao Zongyi (ca. 1316-ca. 1402), bibliophile and author; Shuo fu preserved a number of important documents and biographical data that would have been lost otherwise. Tao... More

14 juan in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. Jianling: Tian shi ding chu shi; Beijing: Wen kai zhai juan, 1924.

First edition of this study on quotations from Xu Shen’s (d. ca. 149) Shuowen jiezi [Explain the Graphs to Unravel the Written Words] Found in Yiqie jing yinyi [Sounds & Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures], the first dictionary of Chinese characters. We learn from Tian’s Preface that Sounds & Meanings refers to two different editions of this work: one is the edition by Xuanying (fl. 7th cent.), which is also known as Da Tang zhongjing yinyi [Sounds... More

17 folding leaves. 8vo (265 x 191 mm), orig. patterned wrappers with paintings on each cover, old stitching. On the antepenultimate page, in a later hand using red ink in trans.: “Yakushiji Temple Horinin…copied August 1795.”

An important text, which has been shrouded in secrecy for several centuries. Manuscript copies, such as the present example, were quietly made, but the Legacy of Ieyasu was not published until the early 19th century.

Ieyasu Tokugawa (1543-1616) “left behind him a document, called the Legacy of Ieyasu, which to those desirous of studying the character and motives of the founder of the Tokugawa... More