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Rare and Antiquarian Books

Typography

Many people are fascinated by the history of typography, and there is a large selection of rare, antique, and hard-to-find typography books available in the Biblio Rare Book Room. Some of the books featured here focus on the history of typography as a whole, and others focus on the typographies of specific cultures and traditions. The history of typography is vast and diverse, as each society developed their own blend of typography and type design. Long before Gutenberg's printing press, people were developing stamps and clay impressions of commonly used characters to more quickly print and publish books.

Typography goes far beyond the eternal debate of "serif vs. sans serif", and many of our booksellers have rare and special books dedicated to the science and art behind typography. If you love the written word, it would be only appropriate to feature some of these books in your antique book collection.

Results 1 - 15 of 107
The History of Monmouthshire; Illustrated and Ornamented by Views of its Principal Landscapes,...
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The History of Monmouthshire; Illustrated and Ornamented by Views of its Principal Landscapes, Ruins, and Residences;

by WILLIAMS David 1738-1816

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Edition
First Edition
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Llandudno, Conwy
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,900.00
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1796. First Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. GARDNOR Mr [John] 1729-1808. HILL Mr.. A rare subscribers coloured copy, 36 pls, 1 map, 2 ills. First edition, in contemporary brown basket weave calf boards, gilt edge tooling, tips carefully repaired. New spine, to style, original title in gilt to red calf label, raised bands, gilt tooling. Internally, map frontis (J Cary, 1787), [12], [1], (ii-xi), [1], [1], 2-360 pp, [1], 2-199, [1] errors, [6] subscribers, 36 pls (coloured), 1 map, 2 charts (folding), lacks half title (as normal per estc but?), ink name of Thomas Lewis Esq of St Pierre to head of title page (see subscribers list), text watermarked T Curtis, plates dated 1793, gilt tooling to board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, text block edges sprinkled blue, printed by H Baldwin, lacks p117/118 (as is usual in ALL copies. Lowndes), removal marks from scotch tape to f/joint, light offsetting & edge browning, spreading to a couple of leaves… Read More
Item Price
£2,900.00
£30.00 shipping to USA
A survey of the cities of London and Westminster: containing the original, antiquity, increase,...
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London: printed for A. Churchill, J. Knapton, R. Knaplock, J. Walthoe, E. Horne, B. Tooke, D. Midwinter, B. Cowse, R. Robinson, and T. Ward, 1720. First Edition thus. Full Calf. Fine. First Strype Edition, best and most desirable edition of Stow's magisterial study—the "starting point of all inquiry into the subject of Elizabethan London." Complete in two folio volumes; each of the six 'books,' introduced by a drop-head title, with its own pagination: [4], xii, xlii, [2], 308, 208, 285, [1]; [2], 120, 459, [1], 93, [3], 143, [1], 26, [2]pp, with 70 plates, plans and maps (31 double-page or folding), including those of London, Westminster and Southwark. Title pages in red and black. Superbly bound in handsome contemporary paneled calf sewn on six raised bands, very skillfully rebacked with the original lettering pieces laid down. A crisp, clean, fresh copy, with only occasional minor soiling, the copper-engraved plates in deep, rich impressions. Provenance: On the verso of the title pages, the… Read More
Item Price
£6,155.00
£5.00 shipping to USA
[Color Plate] Select Views of London. With Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Some of the...
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[Color Plate] Select Views of London. With Historical and Descriptive Sketches of Some of the Most Interesting of its Public Buildings

by PAPWORTH, J[ohn]. B[uonarotti]., 1775-1847

  • Used
  • Fine
Condition
Used - Fine
Seller
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
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£3,906.60
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London: Printed for R. Ackermann, 101, Strand, by J. Diggens, St. Ann's Lane, 1816. Half-Morocco. Fine. First Edition in book form of "one of the great books of London." (Franklin), collecting a series of architectural notes describing contemporary London for Ackermann's Repository, illustrated with colored aquatints and originally published in serial form between 1810-1815. This is the issue without Papworth's name on title page (no priority established). Imperial 8vo: [8],159,[1]pp, with 76 delicately hand-colored aquatints (five folding), by J. Hamble and Joseph Constantine Stadler after Papworth and Augustus Pugin, "of past London, with representations of City churches and other topographical features now no longer in existence" (Prideaux). Later green morocco over navy pebbled cloth, flat spine (sunned to brown) lavishly gilt, all edges marbled, marbled end papers. A fine Ackermann production in a tall, attractive copy, beautifully bound, occasional light offsetting and scattered foxing, plates… Read More
Item Price
£3,906.60
£5.00 shipping to USA
Depression Dog / Chapter Four & Chapter Ten from the as yet unpublished novel, The Bitter Half
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Depression Dog / Chapter Four & Chapter Ten from the as yet unpublished novel, The Bitter Half: with original illustration by Jim lee, Henrik Drescher, Peter Sis & David Mclimans (in order of appearance)

by [Perishable Press] Toby Olson.

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Edition
Edition of 107
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Hoover, Alabama
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,007.50
£14.35 shipping to USA

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Description:
Mount Hebron, Wisconsin:: The Perishable Press,, 2003.. Edition of 107. 26.5 x 19 x 1 cm (10.5 x 7.5 x .375"); 48 page surfaces (31 printed). Ten images by four illustrators printed in different sizes, some repeated from eleven point dies made in Wisconsin. Handset type in five faces. Printed on/into five different mould-made papers, four German, one French, in several colors. Press numbered. Cased by Scott Kellar in Chicago. Printed cloth over thin museum board. Signed by Hamady on the colophon. Handwritten note by Hamady on the front free end page: "This is one of nine delicious copies sequestered by the printer." Below this is printed: "David McLimans / 6 August 1948 / 20 March 20014 [sic]."}Gold seal on back pastedown "American Institute of Graphic Arts Fifty Best Books". Hamady (7/6/1917): "These books ae pristine, as issued by the printer/publisher. Unlike the secondary market they are somehow of a better upbringing. Colophon: "Depression Dog… Read More
Item Price
£2,007.50
£14.35 shipping to USA
[Bodoni] Songe de Poliphile, Vol I - II
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[Bodoni] Songe de Poliphile, Vol I - II

by COLONNA, Francesco

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Kraków, Poland
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£1,888.60
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Description:
Parma: Bodoni, 1811 2 volumes 4to, XI, 190 pp; [4], 198 pp. Untrimmed in publisher's orange boards (boards slightly foxed, some foxing inside). Rare Bodoni rendering of Hypnerotomachia, loosely translated by J. G. Legrand (the first edition was printed by Didot in 1804). Limited to 300 copies. Brooks 1103; Brunet IV, 779 (belle édition).
Item Price
£1,888.60
£65.00 shipping to USA
Apparently with no surprise.
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Apparently with no surprise.

by [Hagner, Dirk] Emily Dickinson.

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Edition
Edition of 8
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Hoover, Alabama
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,569.60
£14.35 shipping to USA

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Description:
San Juan Capistrano, California:: Inkswine Press,, 2020.. Edition of 8. 15 x 11.5" (38 x 29.25 cm); 20 pages. Collagraphs. Chine collé. Letterpress printed with debossed running text. Screen printing. Bound in paper over boards with leather spine. Front cover with printed titles and black glyph illustration. Signed and numbered by the artist. Dirk Hagner: "This large format case-bound book reflects on COVID-19 and is based on a poem by Emily Dickinson which she wrote in 1880, 'Apparently with no surprise'. "This time around the 'blonde assassin' on stage is played by the red-crested corona virus upstart. The sun proceeds but is unmoved. Life is often cruel and death can be random and unexpected, with God paring her fingernails while it all happens. "The book's pages follow the 8 lines of the poem, cutting up the words in several ways, and reassembling the pieces with collagraphs and chine collé, employing debossed running text… Read More
Item Price
£2,569.60
£14.35 shipping to USA
Opera omnia nunc primum cum codd. Vaticanis collata praefatione, variantibus lectionibus, notis...

Opera omnia nunc primum cum codd. Vaticanis collata praefatione, variantibus lectionibus, notis rerum verborumque indice locupletissimo aucta et illustrata.: 2 parts bound in two volumes

by Prudentius, Aurelius

  • Used
Condition
Used
Edition
First edition.
Seller
Tuebingen, Germany
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£1,954.12
£20.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
Engraved title-vignette, 5 unnumb. leaves, 71, (3), 361, (3) pages ; engraved title vignette, 2 unnumb. leaves, 284 (2) pages. Cont. green half morocco, flat spine richly gilt with gilt stamped title. Covers lined with shell marbled paper, endpapers lined with an unusual pattern of multiple coloured shell marbled paper. All edges yellow. 4to (290 x 210 mm). Extremeties rubbed. Brooks, 361 ; Weiss 101. "Edizione sorvegliata da Bodoni e ben lo scorge chi ne esamina i pregi tipografici" (De Lama II, p. 53). A fine copy broadmargined and fresh inside.
Item Price
£1,954.12
£20.00 shipping to USA
Lepidoptera.
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Lepidoptera.

by Hagner, Dirk].

  • Used
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Edition
Edition of 6
Seller
Hoover, Alabama
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£3,693.80
£14.35 shipping to USA

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Description:
San Juan Capistrano, California:: Inkswine Press,, 2021.. Edition of 6. 29 aquatint etchings, woodcuts, chine collé, plus letterpress and screen printing. 15 x 11.5 inches, (38 x 29.25 cm) on 250 gm deckle edge rag paper, quarter case binding. Signed and numbered. Dirk Hagner: "The Lepidoptera series of 11 original prints roots in eastern and western sensibilities, and mythological notions of male-female attraction. It is realized by using gestural spontaneity and the graphic precision of printmaking. The project started with drawings for the woodcuts of the female figure, celebrated in art since the renaissance, and ink brush paintings for the making of aquatint lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) imagery. Asemic writing, printed from relief etchings, provide rhythmic compositional counterpoints. The addition of wood type letterpress outside the chine collé image area expands the visual to the entire page while the rich flat black screen-printed strips at its boundaries… Read More
Item Price
£3,693.80
£14.35 shipping to USA
Pro Neo-Caesare Eustachii Cartoli Sistrum.
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Pro Neo-Caesare Eustachii Cartoli Sistrum.

by Cartoli, Eustachio

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Tuebingen, Germany
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£3,908.25
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Description:
Pages (8), 1-74 (1 leaf), 75-164 (1 leaf), 165-170 (1 leaf), 171-174 (1 leaf), 175-(188) (1 leaf), 189-267,(1). Title printed in red and black with large engraved arms of the honoree Francis I, grand-duke of Tuscany and recently elected Holy Roman emperor, one engraved plate with a carmen figuratum in the shape of a cross on Aa2r signed by N. V. (not identified) after Eustachio Cartoli and dated 1747, five engravings of which four armorial or emblematic, including one printed in green and one (the insignia of the Order of St. Stephen) in sepia, and engraved portrait of the author, signed with monogram of Pietro Antonio Pazzi and dated 1749; 3 large engraved head-pieces and an engraved tail-piece, 5 engraved pictorial initials, and numerous typographic vignettes, ornaments, initials and head- and tail-pieces. Contemporary parchment over boards, flat spine with manuscript inked title to spine. Front paste-down with book label of the French banker and bibliophile Horace de Landau (1824-1903). Folio (360… Read More
Item Price
£3,908.25
£20.00 shipping to USA
Epreuve du premier alphabet droit et penché, ornée de quadres et de cartouches.
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Epreuve du premier alphabet droit et penché, ornée de quadres et de cartouches.

by Luce, (Louis).

  • Used
Condition
Used
Seller
Tuebingen, Germany
Seller rating:
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Item Price
£3,300.30
£20.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
8 leaves (10 pages of which are printed, 6 pages blank ) with types, vignettes, rules and borders. – bound with: Phaedrus. Fabulae et Publii Syri sententiae. Paris, Typographia Regia 1729. Engr. front., (4), 86 pages. – bound with: Horatius Flaccus, Quintus. Opera. Paris, Typographia Regia 1733. Title with typographical vignette and border, (2), 224 pages. Black morocco binding by Simier, relieur du roy. Spine on four raised bands, gilt titles to three compartments, two compartments with blindembossed ornamentation. Covers framed by three blindembossed rolls with gilt point in each corner. Small- 8vo (122 x 78 mm). Spine neatly restored, extremeties worn. - I. Berlin Catalogue 5393 ; Audin, no. 3 ; Birrell and Garnett, p. 16 ; cf. Bigmore and Wyman I, 446. "C'est le plus petit caractère gravé en France à cette époque. Il est diminué d'un tiers par rapport à la 'sedanaise' gravée vers 1625 par Jean Jannon à Sedan (...) Ce spécimen de format très réduit (10,5 x 6,8 cm) contient non… Read More
Item Price
£3,300.30
£20.00 shipping to USA
The Mask of Evil.
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The Mask of Evil.

by Hagner, Dirk].

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
Condition
Used
Edition
Edition of 10
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Hoover, Alabama
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,248.40
£14.35 shipping to USA

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Description:
San Juan Capistrano, California:: Inkswine Press,, 2021.. Edition of 10. 13.75 x 11.25 x .675 inches (35 x 29 x 1.8 cm); 12 pages pages including front and end matters on heavy 480 gm rag paper. Multi-color woodblock prints and letterpress type. Quarter-bound in black Kraftex leather over blue hand-made paper covered boards, with foil title. Signed and numbered by the artist. Dirk Hagner: "Brecht's 'The Mask of Evil' reveals beautifully the problem of being angry and hateful in this world: it's straining and a lot of effort - exactly what it looks and sounds like. Here it is interpreted with anxious typography, juxtaposed with calm organic wood textures.
Item Price
£2,248.40
£14.35 shipping to USA
[Italian private press] Eleven poems
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[Italian private press] Eleven poems: (please contact us for a detailed description of the small collection)

by Merini Alda (Milano, 1931 – Milano, 2009)

  • Used
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good+
Binding
Paperback
Seller
Milan, Italy
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,605.50
£25.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
"Pulcinoelefante" is an Italian publishing house founded by Alberto Casiraghi (or Casiraghy).
The books are hand printed using movable types on the high-quality Hahnemühle paper produced in Germany. Annually "Pulcinoelefante" publishes hundreds of small plaquettes formed by a text (aphorism or short poem), accompanied by small engravings or original drawings made by artists. Each edition is published in a very small number of copies hors de commerce.
"[…] Piegata dal vento della vita, sub specie mutationis, l'opera di Alda Merini, in un flusso inarginato, si muove dalla narrativa alla poesia, dall'eros al mistico, dall'informe alla forma, dal terrestre al celeste, dal vissuto al sognato.
E' significativo notare il profondo legame di Alda Merini con le edizioni Pulcinoelefante di Alberto Casiraghy (edizioni veloci, stampate in giornata). Si attua una produzione sconfinata di Alda Merini, dove si riconferma un'intuizione consequenziale: una sorta di frase infinita nella temporalità, nella durata… Read More
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£2,605.50
£25.00 shipping to USA
[A magnificent copy of an «Édition magnifique» (Brunet) by Bodoni] Fables […] tome premier...
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[A magnificent copy of an «Édition magnifique» (Brunet) by Bodoni] Fables […] tome premier [- second]

by La Fontaine Jean de (Château-Thierry, 1621 – Parigi, 1695)

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good+
Seller
Milan, Italy
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£8,685.00
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Description:
Due tomi in-folio; cc. (7), pp. IV, c. (1), pp. LXXXI, 211; c. (1); pp. 366, c. (1). Cartonatura editoriale originale. Qualche abile restauro ai dorsi delle legature, leggermente allentate, tuttavia splendida copia a pieni margini. A splendid copy with uncut margins, preserved in its original editorial orange boards.Iniziata da Bodoni e portata a termine dalla vedova del celebre stampatore, Margherita Paola Dall'Aglio (Parma, 1758 – Parma, 1841), quest'edizione reca nelle pagine precedenti il frontespizio: "Imprimé par ordre de Sa Majesté Joachim Napoleon Roi des Deux Siciles pour l'instruction de son Fils Ainé S.A.R. le Prince Achille Napoleon". Brunet, III, 754: "Édition magnifique"; Brooks, 1149: "E' una delle più belle edizioni bodoniane"; De Lama, II, p. 213.
Item Price
£8,685.00
£25.00 shipping to USA
Finn's Hotel
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Finn's Hotel

by Joyce, James

  • New
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
  • first
Condition
New
Edition
First Edition; Deluxe Issue; one of ten copies numbered I-X.
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Ballydehob, Cork
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This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£2,866.05
£60.00 shipping to USA

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Description:
One of only 10 copies printed on Zerkall Litho for presentation in Artist's Bindings. Designed by the Spanish artist Antonio Veléz Celemín exclusively for the first edition, these copies are beautifully handbound in quarter cloth with exquisite hand marbling on both the book and the slipcase, joining two complementary patterns. To achieve this unique and specially commissioned design, the artist has combined Suminagashi (a Japanese technique dating back to 1055) using only black ink, and the classic western pattern of 'wavy thorns'. These are our 'top copies': they marry the finest in printing art with a rare fine-binding. The First Edition of  FINN'S HOTEL by James Joyce. Edited, arranged and with a preface by Danis Rose, introduced by Seamus Deane, with eleven illustrations by Casey Sorrow. Designed and printed letterpress by Michael Caine for Ithys Press, Dublin. The Preface and Joyce's text have been handset by Caine in Van Dijk, Kis-Janson and various early 20th Century typefaces and the… Read More
Item Price
£2,866.05
£60.00 shipping to USA
Trattato della Sanctissima Charità
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Trattato della Sanctissima Charità: Printed 'at the instance’ of the Dominican tertiary nuns of the Monastery of Santa Caterina del Paradiso in Siena: the Essling's copy

by Dominici Giovanni (al secolo Banchini o Baccini Giovanni, Firenze, 1356 o 1357 – Buda, 1419)

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good+
Seller
Milan, Italy
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£8,511.30
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4°; cc. (4), 180 [recte: 170], (2) [numerosi errori nella numerazione delle carte]; segnatura: †⁴,A-X⁸,Y⁴. Caratteri gotico e romanico. Al frontespizio, grande silografia a piena pagina raffigurante l'autore inginocchiato nell'atto di offrire la sua opera a Cristo in Croce; capilettera silografici. Splendido colophon calligrammatico in forme di Croce. Legatura del sec. XIX - firmata "M. Lortic" in marocchino rosso, armi al centro dei piatti, dorso a cinque nervi con titolo impresso in oro e monogramma 'MV', taglî dorati. Accurati, piccoli restauri marginali - verosimilmente ottocenteschi - alla prima e ultima carta; alcuni fascicoli leggermente bruniti. Nel complesso, copia molto bella, discretamente lavata come imponeva il canone collezionistico francese del secondo Ottocento.
Provenienza: legatura alle armi di Victor Masséna, Prince d'Essling (1836-1910); su un foglio di guardia, etichetta "Antiquariato Librario [Francesco] Radaeli", Milano; Christie's 16 Jun 2005, Libri e autografi, n.… Read More
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£8,511.30
£25.00 shipping to USA