Vite de Philosophi Moralissime by Diogenes Laertius & DA ALTRIANTICHI AUTTORI - 1515

Zurich: Christoffel Froschouer 1st edition, 1556. Hardcover. Good. Woodcuts (104), many first used in the Schweizer-Chronik of 1548 with scenes of battles, sieges of cities, convocations, portraits &c. . Small folio (29.4 x 19.5mm) in sixes, 19th century half-calf with marbled boards, spine labels with gilt title in French and date 1556 (edges worn, labels chipped). Titlepage with woodcut printer's mark, 2 leaves (A2-A3) dedication & argument + CXXXVII leaves of German text, illustrated with woodcuts throughout. Lacks 7 preliminary leaves (Sources A4, Register B-B6) and one final blank leaf, otherwise collated complete. Title and the 2 preliminary leaves have small edge-tears and are re-hinged on newer paper stubs, text pages mostly clean and crisp with occasional small marks and light browning. Bookplates: "ex Libris Ludovic Blondin" and armorial "Friedemann Graf und Herr von Werthern". *Rare early Protestant treatise intended to show the harmful effects of Papacy, partly based on sources collected… Read More

London: For the author & William Faden (replaced by R.Faulder in vol.2), 1792. Hardcover. Very Good-. Aquatint plates (65 as listed) + 11 folding Maps. . 2 VOLUMES IN ONE 223x141mm green calf gilt key pattern border & spine gilt, gilt dent. & rev. (tips & hinges rubbed/spine darkened) All Edges Gilt Dedication to Prince of Wales the future George IV. TP + xvi =Dedic.+Introduction + contents & plate list +154pp Titlepage to Part II +viii=Contents & Plate list + 190pp+errata + 11 folding Maps. Coat of Arms bookplate James Forbes esq. & F.Fisher written in. Short tears to gutter edge - no loss - to first 3 leaves else a clean copy. Slight offset from plates to facing text but no foxing and great views with horses, coaches, people, boats etc. The maps without and misfold or tears -they look unused. A clean copy of a lovely aquatint book.

Paris (Lutetiae): Robertus Stephanus Cum privilegio Regis, 1551. Hardcover. Very Good. Nice Estienne printer's device on titlepage of basilisk wound round vine and floral headpiece and initial on first page of life of Pompey the Great.. Small quarto (23.5x14mm) half 19th century morocco on 5 bands gilt ruled with Greek title and brown marbled boards, marbled endpapers with neat Greek Athens bookseller's label, 357pp +[3]pp Variae Lectiones & Errata. Beautifully clean and crisp, handsome Greek typography. *Editio princeps of the epitome of Dio's Roman history, abridged in the 11th century by Joannes Xiphilinus, the only source for Dio's lost books 61-80, dealing with events from 47 B.C. to 235 A.D. Robert Estienne issued this epitome to compliment his folio edition of Dio Cassius of 1548. Printed in the gros-romain font of the "grecs du roi", cut by Claude Garamond.

London: Day & Son 1866. (Hardcover) 842pp. Good to very good. Original cloth with illustrations and titles in gilt. 21 chromolithographs (including 2 folding maps). 9 woodcut engravings in the text. Presentation inscription dated 1868 on the front endpaper of each volume, the covers are worn at the corners and ends of the spine, there is some spotting to the plates and a few pages, some dampstaining to the covers. In mylar wrappers. Also known as Augustus F. Lindley. Locale: China. (Military, Military, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Taiping Rebellion--1850-64).

London: Printed by Stephen Couchman, For W. Curtis, 1793. First edition thus. Leather. Very Good. 1st edition, thus. Volume 1 only. A Very Good copy. 8vo., with engraved frontispiece and 40 hand coloured plates. Bound in half red morocco and marbled paper over boards, with title on spine in gilt. 3 front blank end papers, 5 blank rear end papers. Handsome bookplate. Boards lightly rubbed, spine more so. Front paste down foxed. Frontispiece dampstained, transferring to a lesser degree to the title page. Text and plates generally clean, with occasional off-setting and a dot of foxing. A Very Good copy. *** Originally issued in monthly parts, each consisting of three plates and accompanying letterpress text: this edition a reprint in annual volumes. Text leaves are bound facing the plates they describe and numbered to correspond to that plate. Drawings for the plates were made by: James Sowerby, Sydenham Edwards and Francis Sansom; coloring supervised by William Graves.*** Bookplate of known book… Read More

New York: The Century Co, 1908. A finely produced publication dedicated to the magic of the pearl, rarely found in such lovely original condition. Published in New York in 1908, this work is a splendid example of fine book production. Amongst much of interest, there is a long chapter on the Australian pearling industry: "As regards areas of distribution the most extensive pearl-oyster grounds of the world are situated on the northern and western coasts of Australia" the nude divers in the Australian pearl fisheries are mostly Malays and Australian aborigines." (Chapter IX). Large octavo, colour frontispiece and numerous black & white and coloured plates throughout; a very good copy in the original gilt-decorated cloth.

Collection of 277 hand-coloured lithographic portraits of French actors and actresses from the first 4 volumes of this rare series.No title page or prelims, mostly disbound plates loosely inserted within original bindings for Vol. 1 and 2, plate numbers from 1 to 392.Portraits of actors, actresses, dancers and opera singers by Alexandre Lacauchie and Victor Dollet, lithographed by Jules Rigo, Decan, Lebref.Considered to be the most important French artists gallery of the 19th century.Condition: Red leather bindings with fine gilt decoration on spines and boards, water damaged but holding, acting as portfolio for the loose plates. Plates with some damp-staining to lower edge, mostly outside the image, toning and spotting. Most plates disbound but all with vibrant fine hand coloring and gum arabic high lighting. Sold as a collection of plates.Alexandre Lacauchie (1814-1886) was a French painter, engraver and lithographer. Jean Francois Victor Dollet (1815-??) was a French painter, lithographer and printmaker.

Torino: Nella Stamperia Reale, 1772. Very Good. Quarto (23 cm); viii, 417 pages, and XI folding copper-engraved plates. Bound "alla rustica" in publisher's pastepaper, lettered in manuscript on spine. Pages evenly toned, but an unblemished, unsophisticated copy of a seminal work. References: Gamba, 2150 ("Nella Fisica forma epoca il nome di Beccaria"); La Stampa Reale di Torino, p. 71; Second much-expanded and first illustrated edition of the seminal study of electricity by Giovanni Battista Beccaria, professor of experimental physics at the University of Torino. (The edition published in 1753, without plates, was about half the pages.) It was this edition that Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Priestley brought to John Nourse, noted London publisher of scientific books, to have translated into English and published in 1776 as "A treatise upon artificial electricity. Beccaria (1716-1781) was a principal exponent of Franklin's studies on electricity in Europe, and a principal innovator in Italian… Read More

(7) leaves letterpress text, 1 leaf half-title (première section) 111 numbered leaves (recte 109) ; plates numbered 10 through 111 are printed on recto only, with plate numbers 40, 63 and 92 omitted according to a printed note at the end of the index, but including an extra plate 35bis) ; 1 leaf half-title (cinquième section annexe), (8) leaves numbered I-XVII (omitting numbers XV/XVI) with text and illustrations on both sides. The plates with numerous printed black and white labels, mounted chromolithographed labels and colourful chromolithographed labels on white glazed paper. Publisher's red cloth, gilt title to spine and front cover. Oblong folio (456 x 320 mm). Extremeties worn, front cover spotted. A fine example showing the wealth of French industrial and agricultural products displayed in black and white facsimiles and color mounted product labels and renderings of trademarks of producers and manufacturers. The most important part is the third section of this catalog showing agricultural… Read More

Very good copy of the first volume of Andrews' magnus opus, with 72 stunning botanical plates.Title page dated 1797, but preface dated 1799. Complete with 72 copperplates drawn, engraved, published and hand-coloured by Henry Andrews himself, printed in black or green ink and heightened with gum arabic.Volume 1 only in a series of 10 volumes with 664 plates published from 1797 to 1814 as the first serious rival to William Curtis' Botanical Magazine. Andrews stated that it was his intent to introduce new and rare plants "as have not hitherto appeared in any similar publication." This volume has herbs and shrubs from Mexico, South America, the West Indies, South Africa, Japan, Madeira, and many other exotic locations.The distinctive plates are dynamic and elegant, with brilliant and vibrant hand-colour by Andrews himself. Printed in green ink, many look like water-colour paintings rather than engravings. The image fills the page, with some trimmed right up to the plate mark.With botanical descriptions in… Read More