Search Results: Titles starting with R from Liber Antiquus

London: printed for John Starkey, 1669. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION (A French-language version appeared at Amsterdam in the same year.). Hardcover. Fine. Bound in contemporary polished calf, rebacked preserving original spine, corners bumped, light wear. Complete with the two engraved portraits of Charles Howard, First Earl of Carlisle (1628-1685) and Tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovich (1629-1676), just shaved at fore-edge. Title a little dusty, clean tear to margin of Z1 (not entering the text). Fine. First edition of this eyewitness account of the official English embassy to Russia, written by Guy Miege, under-secretary to the English ambassador Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle. The book provides a fascinating window on the intricacies of Russian diplomatic protocols, ceremonial customs, and the hospitality bestowed upon high-ranking foreign dignitaries at the Russian court. "Carlisle's main responsibilities were to reciprocate the honor that Tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovich had shown to King Charles II in sending… Read More

Rome: appresso Francesco Zanetti, 1584. FIRST ITALIAN EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. Later "carta rustica" boards with spine in early vellum. The text begins on A2. Complete. The extremely rare first Italian edition of this report from India. Streit lists a Latin edition at Goa in 1584 (Streit IV, 1024) but this appears to have been published only in later collections (the 'Littera annua' of 1585, etc.). This is the first of two separately printed 1584 editions, both of which are of extreme rarity, recorded by Streit. The Yale copy also lacks the first blank leaf. This letter details the deaths of the Jesuit Martyrs of Cuncolim, who were killed on Monday, 25 July 1583, in the village of Cuncolim in the district of Salsette, territory of Goa, India. The "martyrs" were the Italian Rudolph Acquaviva, the Spaniard Alphonso Pacheco, the Swiss Peter Berno, the Portuguese Anthony Francis, and Brother Francis Aranha, also a Portuguese. In addition, the Portuguese layman Gonçalo Rodrigues, and some Indian… Read More

Florence: Appresso Bartolomeo Sermartelli e frateli, 1608. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in early 20th c. quarter red Morocco and marbled boards (small repairs to head and foot of spine). A fine copy with scattered mild spotting. Complete with the folding plate of the banquet (signed "Mattheus Greuter excudit".) Two lines have been erased from the plate, as is the case in all copies I have examined. Manuscript foliation at head of first leaf. With the combined woodcut arms of Cosimo II and Maria Magdalena. Small woodcut of the Laocoön on leaf B4. Extremely rare. 1 copy traced in North America (Getty). First edition of these verses composed for a banquet, held in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence on 19 October 1608, celebrating the wedding of Cosimo II de' Medici (1590-1621) and Maria Magdalena, Archduchess of Austria (1589-1631). The songs are sung by the Nymph of the Arno, possibly the singer, dressed as a nymph, who sat upon a giant conch shell at the left-hand side of the dais -upon which… Read More

Rome:: A spese di Niccola Roisecco, 1765. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in three uniform bindings of contemporary patterned paste-paper over cartoncino boards. wear to extremities and spines. Internally this is as close to an immaculate set as I have seen, with some deckled edges preserved. The text is bright and clean throughout. The folding engravings are crisp.The three volumes are illustrated with an engraved frontispiece (in Vol. I), numerous engraved illustrations in the text, a folding table, and 39 folding engraved illustrations of architectural monuments and sculpture. This set is complete with all engravings called for by Rossetti. Sets such as this, with all three volumes complete and with all plates, bound in their original bindings, are rare on the market. Excellent. A beautiful three-volume set, describing and illustrating the ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque monuments and buildings of Rome. This publication marks the culmination of a long series of developments in illustrated guides… Read More

London: Adam Islip, 1600. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH and THE FIRST OF PHILEMON HOLLAND'S TRANSLATIONS of ANCIENT AUTHORS. Hardcover. Fine. This is a very fine copy in contemporary calfskin, ruled in gold, with decorative tools at the corners of the central compartment, and a fine arabesque at the center of the boards, gilt. Rebacked with original spine preserved, small defects. A very fine copy with minor smudges or inkspots (including a fingerprint on p. 655. Marginal tear on p. 623-4, no loss. A woodcut portrait of Queen Elizabeth is printed on the verso of the title page; a second portrait, of Livy, is printed on A4 verso. This is the first complete rendering into English of the most important Roman historian. The scholar-surgeon Philemon Holland is one of the great literary figures of the twilight years of the Elizabethan age. Like his contemporary John Florio, who translated Montaigne's "Essays" into English in 1599, Holland not only made the works that he translated accessible to English… Read More

Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1678. SOLE EDITION. BOUND WITH THE SOLE EDITION OF KIRCHER'S "SPHINX MYSTAGOGA" (See below.). Hardcover. Fine. Bound in attractive 17th c. calfskin. A fine sammelband. The "Sphinx" exhibits the usual browning. The "Musaeum" is in very fine condition with just some closed tears (no loss whatsoever) to some of the folding plates, a small rust blemish on I1, small spot on H4, and light spotting to leaves D3-4. Complete with all of the plates, including the portrait of Kircher and the iconic view of his museum. [Bound with] Kircher, Athanasius (1602-1680) Sphinx Mystagoga, sive, Diatribe hieroglyphica qua mumiae, ex Mempheticis pyramidum adytis erutae & non ita pridem in Galliam transmissae, iuxta veterum hieromystarum mentem, intentionemque, plena fide & exacta exhibetur interpretatio. Amsterdam: Jansson-Waesberg, 1676 I. Kircher's "Most Celebrated Museum of the Roman College of the Society of Jesus" The only description of Kircher's museum in the Collegio Romano as it… Read More

London: Printed for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Anchor, in the lower walk of the New Exchange, 1656. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. A very good, crisp, complete copy of this rare book, bound in contemporary English sheepskin, ruled in blind, rebacked, boards heavily worn. Metal-cut t.p. rule shaved on two sides, portrait leaf with small repair to lower left corner, just entering the blank corner of the plate mark (no loss to image), blank corner of leaf B6 excised (no loss), a few tiny repairs to marginal tears. The book includes a woodcut chess board on p. 14. The portrait of King Charles I is by Peter Stent (fl. 1640-1667). The book includes a poem by Richard Lovelace (1618-1658). In this issue the poem begins "Sir, now unravell'd is the Golden Fleece" and is unsigned. In another issue (no precedence), the poem is titled "To his Honoured Friend on his Game of Chesse-Play" and is signed "R. Lovelace."(See Leon, "The Games of Greco", p. 234).… Read More