Search Results: Authors starting with F from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

Munich: Michael Wening, 1683. Gilt red morocco (c. 1780) decorated with a frame of rules, waves, foliage, braziers, olive branches and cenotaphs, initials M.A.W. on the front panel and X.A.E. on the rear, flat spine with waves and rules, green paper endleaves, all edges gilt; in a contemporary mottled calf pull-off case gilt with the same rule, wave and brazier tools; the box lid lined with floral decorated paper, the sleeve covered in green paper.             Only Edition of a particularly fine South German picture devotional in four parts. The preliminaries include the title, dedication, dedicatee's portrait, a prayer and illustrations of Risen Christ and the Last Supper.             Thirty-five numbered double-page openings constitute the next section. The versos show a priest and attendants in song or prayer as they perform the mass. The rectos have a saint on the left and on the right of three prayers. One addresses each saint, and one corresponds to the stage of the mass on the… Read More

[Mechelen (Malines): Joseph Dochez], 1778. HOUSED IN A CONTEMPORARY "BLOOK" - A MOTTLED CALF-COVERED WOODEN BOX MADE TO LOOK LIKE FIVE UNIFORMLY BOUND QUARTO VOLUMES (worn); each spine has one black and five gilt-lettered red calf labels; the top of the box slides off horizontally. Ad I-II: COMPLETE and complemented by its fugitive illustrated Prospectus. This is the first printed large-scale topographic map of Belgium and Luxembourg, produced "in response to the shortage of accurate and reliable maps experienced by the military forces during the Seven Years' War" (Vervust).             Closely associated with the Viennese Court and a skilled artillerist, Ferraris directed the survey from 1771 to 1775. "Its execution was headed by three members of his staff...who led as many as 178 members of the artillery corps...using only simple plane tables and surveyor's chains" (Bracke, History). Ferraris produced three 275-sheet manuscript maps - one for the Austrian Emperor, one for the Duke of… Read More

Toscolano: Alessandro dei Paganini, 1521. Mid-19th century crushed blind-ruled red morocco (rubbed), gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt, blue silk marker. FIRST COMPLETE EDITION AND THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THESE WONDERFUL STRONGLY MODELLED WOODCUTS.      THIS WORK ESTABLISHED THE NEW LITERARY GENRE OF MACARONICS, the comic literary practice of mixing Latin words and Italian words with Latin inflections. Rabelais placed this title in the imaginary library of St. Victor.      The most celebrated piece relates the adventures of Baldus (a prince raised as a peasant) and his friends, the giant Fracasso, the rogue Cingar and the dog-man Falchetto, who end up in a giant pumpkin where poets, philosophers and other liars suffer diabolic dentistry. The final eight cantos are published here for the first time as is his "Battle of Flies and Ants". In good condition (title soiled, a couple of minor spots). ¶Elie, "Alessandro dei Paganini" in Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1967 99-103 no. 18; Nuovo, Alessandro… Read More

Paris: Louis Fordrin, 1723. Contemporary mottled calf (worn, a few neat repairs), spine and red morocco label gilt. First Edition of this ironwork pattern book presenting chandeliers, grilles, railings, lattice gates, balconies, garden ornament, staircases, signs, lamps and A SPECTACULAR TWELVE-SHEET CHOIR-SCREEN (850 x 1008 mm.), inspired by Fordrin's work at Notre Dame. This copy is an early issue with all but five plates before numbers; in the ?19th century, three small related cuts (c. 165 x 175 mm.; one signed Babin) were tipped in on stubs. In good condition, label of pn on the front pastedown. ¶Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes 123-4,96 "Very fine examples" (tr.); Cohen-de Ricci, Guide de l'amateur de livres à gravures 408 "rare"; Jervis, The Penguin Dictionary of Design 186-7; Destailleur, Catalogue (1895) 458 (plates numbered).

[Tours or Paris], 1480. Mid-16th-century gilt-ruled vellum with overlapping edges over thin flexible paper boards (minor soiling), azured oval central ornament of interlacing strapwork and an open center, flat spine gilt with fleurons and foliage rolls, spine lined with a fragment of a 16th-century vellum document in French, two recent gilt-lettered black morocco labels, all edges gilt, evidence of four green silk ties, early manuscript title on the front cover. Manuscript on vellum. In a single Gothic hand (cursiva formata or bâtarde) in black ink, 23 lines per page, text block c. 160 x 105 mm., ruled in red ink, OPENING HALF-PAGE ILLUMINATION OF THE VERMANDOIS COAT OF ARMS SUPPORTED BY TWO LIONS RAMPANT on a field of vines, flowers and fruit on gold ground, enclosed in a FULL ILLUMINATED BORDER OF VINES, FLOWERS, FRUIT, BIRDS AND IMAGINARY CREATURES ON DIVIDED WHITE AND GOLD GROUND; one four-line and two five-line illuminated initials in blue ink on red ground with penwork decoration en camaïeu… Read More

Poitiers: J. Fleuriau, 1661. Contemporary vellum over flexible paper boards, contemporary marbled paper pastedowns. A fugitive collection of verse gathered by the printer. Most pieces address the king and Mazarin. Two praise Christian missionary work in the East and a third the recent Venetian victory over the Turks at sea. I've found one copy in the U.S. In good condition (slightly browned), signatures of Louis Barnabé, ?the Jesuit missionary in Asia and Russia (1649-87), later inscription of the Bordeaux Jesuits. ¶Sommervogel-deBacker, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus III: 1008,10.

France: s.n., 1857. VELLUM BROADSIDE (355 x 449 mm.) completed in manuscript in a single cursive hand, thirteen lines of letterpress in a white-line ornamental frame, metalcut royal arms, signed at the bottom and stamped Bureau de l'Imprimerie et de la Librairie.             To become a printer in Angoulême (southeast of La Rochelle), Frugier here pledged fealty to Napoleon III, to the French Constitution and to the laws of the realm. The tight control of the printing trades, instituted in the 1530s, remained in force until 29 July 1881 (art. 1): "L'imprimerie et la librairie sont libres". In good condition (trace of old folds).