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...

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 about The Life of Benvenuto Cellini: a Florentine Artist. Containing a Variety of Curious and...

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 about Allgemeines gelehrten-Lexicon

Engraved frontis. port. of Caxton & two woodcut plates of watermarks. xxii, 156 pp., one leaf of errata. 8vo, cont. blue pebbled morocco (a bit of rubbing to extremities), spine lettered in gilt, a.e.g. London: 1737.

First edition of the first full-scale biographical study of Caxton. Lewis (1675-1747), listed the Caxton editions known to him and reconstructed from them an outline of Caxton’s life.

A very fine copy, printed on what seems to be thick paper. From the libraries of Col. J.C. Dundas of Ochtertyre, Stirling (his sale Sotheby’s, 3 November 1958) and A.R.A. Hobson with his bookplate. More about The Life of Mayster Wyllyam Caxton, of the Weald of Kent; the First Printer in England. In which...

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 about Annales rerum Belli domique ab Austriacis Habspurgicae gentis principibus, à Rudolpho primo,...

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 about Histoire de mes Ascensions. Récit de Vingt-Quatre Voyages aëriens (1868-1877) précédé de...