Greek type, double column, 50 lines. Typographic devices printed in red, decorated initials by Ioannes Rosos, all woodcuts, headings, brackets, capital for each entry printed in red. 224 leaves. Folio (393 x 273 mm.), finely panelled cont. calf (well-rebacked, joints & edges carefully repaired), later red morocco lettering-piece on spine. Venice: Kallierges & Vlastos, 8 July 1499.

First edition; a fine and large copy of the first all-Greek lexicon ever printed and the first book published by the press of Kallierges and Vlastos. With the ownership inscription of Agostino Giustiniani (1470-1536), editor of the Psalterium haebreum, graecum, arabicum et chaldaeum... More

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

Trans. into Chinese by Xuanzang. Orihon (accordion) format (258 x 12,550 mm.), 28 joined sheets, 23 columns per sheet, mostly 17 characters per column, blockprint height: 201 mm.). Printed on grayish recycled paper. [Nara: published by the monk Kōei at the Kōfukuji Temple, 1213].

An extremely rare example of a Kamakura-era sutra printed in Japan on recycled grayish paper; this is the first specimen we have encountered. For an excellent discussion on the subject of recycled paper used in early Japanese printing, we have turned to the most interesting contribution of SOAS Prof. Lucia Dolce (“A Sutra as... More

17 characters per column; 5 columns per page. Text-block height: 126 mm. Each column ruled in gold, with gold borders on top & bottom. Eight vols. (172 x 6285; 7260; 6830; 5980; 6530; 6280; 5860; 5125 mm.). Narrow 8vo, orig. semi-stiff blue boards (some rubbing), decorated on the outside with patterns in gold & silver of flowers, heightened with sprays of gold (kindei; “golden mud”); inner endpapers decorated with gold & silver speckles. Title and volume number in manuscript on each upper cover. [Japan, probably at Nara]: Kasuga-ban, mid- to late Kamakura (ca. 1250-1333).

A luxuriously produced and most unusual... More

Eight vertical lines of text per page. 98 folding leaves. Oblong 8vo (144 x 206 mm.), orig. (or very early) dark thick wrappers, new stitching. [Nara?: Manjuya Hayashi Soji, ca. 1532-73].

One of the earliest surviving 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, additions, and formats. All early editions are extremely rare, as they... 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

Title within typographical border & a full-page woodcut of the author, aged 47, on verso of A4. 4 p.l., 247, [2] pp. Small 4to, attractive antique mottled calf by Aquarius (final leaf with some skillful marginal repairs), spine gilt, green morocco lettering piece on spine. Cologne: A. Byrckman, 1567.

First edition of this important collection of writings; it is the chief collection of Paracelsus's works on natural philosophy, translated here into German. The texts are: "De Vera Influentia rerum"; "De Inventione Artium"; "De Sensu & Instrumentis"; "De Tempore Laboris & Requiei"; "De Bona & Mala Fortuna"; "De Sanguine ultra Mortem"; "De... More

Printer’s device in red on title & numerous woodcut diagrams in the text. Title printed in red & black. 6 p.l., 143 numbered leaves. Folio, most attractive early 18th-cent. mottled half-sheep & mottled boards (head of spine a bit worn, title a little browned), spine gilt, red & green morocco lettering pieces on spine. Venice: L. Giunta, 1528.

First edition of the first translation of the Almagest from the original Greek. Previously Ptolemy’s great astronomical text was available only in the 12th-century translation of Gherardo da Cremona from an Arabic translation (1st ed.: 1515). The present translation was made directly... More

62 unnumbered leaves (the final leaf, a blank, is present). Small folio, cont. blind-stamped pigskin-backed wooden boards, orig. clasps & catches. Tübingen: T. Anshelm, 1514.

[bound with]:

—. De Arte Cabalistica Libri Tres Leoni X. dicati. Large woodcut coat-of-arms of Reuchlin on title. Much printing in Hebrew. 4 p.l., LXXIX leaves, one leaf. Small folio. Hagenau: T. Anshelm, 1517.

Fine and fresh copies of the second and first editions respectively of the Christian humanist Reuchlin’s great expositions of the Cabbalistic art, present here together in a handsome binding of contemporary blind-stamped pigskin-backed wooden boards with the original catches and clasps.

Reuchlin... More

22-23 columns per sheet, 17 characters per column (column height 205 mm.), printed on 19 joined sheets (263 mm. high; sheet lengths ranging from 428-443 mm.; total length, including front endpaper: 8480 mm.), attached at end to a wooden roller. [Nara: Kamakura era].

A rare early woodblock-printed sutra, issued on high-quality thick paper (gampi, or mulberry fibers), and printed in bold, thick strokes, using black sumi ink, typical of Kamakura and Muromachi kasuga-ban printings (kasuga-ban is a general term for publications of the Nara monasteries).

The Mahaprajnaparamitasutra is a massive compilation of scriptural literature said to have been preached by... 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