Trans. by Xuanzang 玄奘 in 650 CE. 70 pages, six columns per page, 30 columns per sheet, 17 characters per column. 14 sheets (average sheet length: 570 mm.), five pages per sheet. Accordion format (305 x 7980 mm., print surface from top border to bottom border: 245–250 mm.). Single woodcut borders at top & bottom of text. Orig. sutra binding of semi-stiff paper wrappers. Woodblocks carved by Ge Fang & Ma Qing (& others) in Sixi (present day Huzhou), printed between 1110s/40s–1276.

This fascicle, in its original sutra binding, was printed in the 12th or 13th century in northern Zhejiang... More

Seven columns of text per page. 68; 72 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo (285 x 206 mm.), orig. (or very early) dark thick wrappers (strengthened & with new endpapers), new stitching. From the colophon: Kyoto: Ekirin Hirai, 1597.

The setsuyoshu, the essential Japanese dictionary, “one of the mainstays of the publishing industry and…probably the most likely book to be found in a house of few books.”–Kornicki, The Book in Japan, p. 248. Widely used from the 15th century through the early Meiji period; there were more than 500 editions in many styles and formats, and many with additions. All... More

23-33 characters per column; 6 columns per page. Text-block height: 230 mm. Eight vols. (190 x 8600; 10,000; 9300; 8200; 8900; 8600; 8000; 7000 mm.). Tall narrow 8vo, orig. semi-stiff dark blue boards (minor rubbing), orig. block-printed mica-dusted title labels on upper covers, each entitled “Shinpan Myohorengekyo” [“new [carved] boards for the Myohorengekyo”] & volume number. [Japan]: early to mid-Edo?

A very rare — apparently unrecorded — edition of the complete Lotus Sutra, handsomely carved throughout in hiragana, allowing those unskilled in reading kanji to study the text. The vast majority of sutra printed in early Japan were carved in... More

17 characters per column; 24 columns per sheet. Each sheet: ca. 450 mm. long. Text-block height: 207 mm. Eight scrolls (297 x 10,785; 12,480; 11,600; 10,430; 11,190; 10,190; 10,130; 9000 mm.), all with front endpapers speckled on inside with square-cut gold, silver, & copper foil, outer endpapers dyed reddish-orange & with clouds of gold, silver, & copper mottling. Seven of the eight scrolls have on the outside of the front endpaper an orig. label stating “Myohorengekyo” [“Glory to the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra”], and its volume number. All with wooden rollers. [Japan: late Muromachi to early Edo].

A handsomely... More

Numerous woodcut illus. & diagrams in the text. 4 p.l. (the last a blank), 334 (i.e., 332) pp. Folio, cont. limp vellum (title a bit soiled, last two leaves with some light dampstaining), ties gone. Pesaro: H. Concordia, 1588.

First edition and a very fine and fresh copy of this uncommon book; this edition, providing the complete extant text, was the final work to be edited by Commandino and completes his life's work of reviving Renaissance mathematics by making available the best mathematical writings of antiquity.

"In the silver age of Greek mathematics Pappus stands out as an accomplished and versatile... More

Printed in Chinese with Japanese reading marks. 11 columns per page, 21 characters per column. 79; 59; 51; 49; 67 folding leaves. Ten parts in five vols. 8vo (240 x 149 mm.), orig. brown wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: mid-Muromachi [ca. 1440-50].

An extremely rare and important “mid-Muromachi” Gozan-ban edition of The Blue Cliff Record [in Chinese: Pi yen lu], a collection of Chan Buddhist koan. These were verbal tests, used to practice or test a student’s progress in Zen, compiled in the Song Dynasty and expanded by the great Northern Song Chan master Yuanwu Keqin (1063-1135), abbot of Tianning Wanshou... More