2 p.l., 366 pp. Small 8vo, self-bound (spine a little defective). Leipzig: 1809.

A rare sale catalogue: Loh, V, p. 256 locates no copy, although WorldCat records a copy at the Sachsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden. This was a large sale of 5162 lots of books and 176 lots of prints and music; it took place in Eilenburg, near Leipzig. While the sale is anonymous, there were several notable Eilenburg residents who died that year and are candidates for ownership, including Sabina Christophora von Görne (b. 1739) and the city physician Christian Gottlob Francke (b. 1760).

The lots are arranged by subject and then format. Section 18 is enticingly entitled “Typographische Monumente und andere Seltenheiten” and contains, amongst other notable books, a Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of 1499. Section 19 lists manuscripts including a 7th- or 8th-century vellum manuscript of Isidore of Seville! More

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

Engraved frontis. port. x, 512 pp.; 1 p.l., 403, [45] pp. Two vols. 8vo, fine cont. speckled sheep (short tear, without loss, to pp. 99-100 of Vol. I), green & red morocco lettering pieces on spines. London: T. Davies, 1771.

First edition in English of Cellini’s autobiography, “a production of the utmost energy, directness, and racy animation, setting forth one of the most singular careers in all the annals of fine art. His amours and hatreds, his passions and delights, his love of the sumptuous and the exquisite in art, his self-applause and self-assertion, make this one of the most singular and fascinating books in... More

Engraved frontis. port. of the author in Vol. I & one large engraved vignette. Titles printed in red & black. Four vols. Large thick 4to, cont. vellum over boards, spines lettered in gilt. Leipzig: J.F. Gleditsch, 1750-50-51-51.

First edition of the still essential bio-bibliographical dictionary; there are about 50,000 entries. Jöcher (1694-1758), was professor of philosophy and librarian at the University of Leipzig. The present book is his greatest work and continues to be of considerable use; it remains the only convenient place to find accounts of many obscure authors and their writings.

Fine set from the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana. More

Frontis. & one illus. (both black & white). 16 pp. 8vo (205 x 136 mm.), orig. green semi-stiff printed wrappers, staple-bound. [From the final page]: Melun: A. Douhin, 1927.

The uncommon second edition of this account of Jean François Millet’s life by the poet and journalist Louis Latourrette. He focuses on the formative time the artist spent at Barbizon. The author writes in the introduction (in trans.): “If Barbizon gave to J.F. Millet the full awareness of his genius and the reason for his most magisterial inspiration, the great painter lavishly settled his debt by giving to Barbizon glory, a glory universal and immortal, such as... More

Large Habsburg woodcut coat-of-arms on title; portrait of Archduke Ferdinand II on verso & Habsburg family tree with small portraits on verso of fifth preliminary leaf, both finely engraved & full-page; & 48 woodcut coat-of-arms on preliminary leaves 11-16. 16 p.l., 477, [1], 28 pp. Small folio, fine cont. limp vellum, covers panelled in gilt with gilt fleurons in corners, gilt coats-of-arms in center of covers, yapp edges, ties gone, a.e.g. Innsbruck: J. Agricola, 1592.

First edition and a lovely copy of this essential official history of the Habsburg princes written by the librarian and keeper of art to Ferdinand II; complete with the finely executed... More

Numerous illus. & plates (several double-page) by Albert Tissandier; one folding table printed on both sides & one folding map. viii, 344 pp. Large 8vo, fine orig. red sheep (a few tiny defects), panelled in gilt, with the initials of Albert Tissandier on upper cover (“A.T.”), spine nicely gilt, a.e.g. Paris: M. Dreyfous, 1878.

First edition, the copy of Albert Tissandier, the illustrator of this book and brother of the author. Gaston Tissandier (1843-99), chemist, meteorologist, author, and aviator, with his brother Albert, were the most famous balloonists of their time, making a number of ascensions. They were the first to... More