Search Results: Titles starting with V from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

Paris: N. Giguet and L.-G. and J.-F. Michaud for H. Henrichs, 1803. Sheep-backed speckled boards, flat spine, gilt-lettered title. First Edition of this semi-autobiographical epistolary novel by one of the leading architects of the Holy or Grand Alliance, which held sway in Europe from 1815 to 1853. Born in Riga to a wealthy family with access to the court of Catherine of Russia, the author married a local noble and diplomat much her senior. She sought relief from their distant relations in imagining her husband as the lover described in the letters published here, a sentimental romance. Her subsequent profound religious conversion opened the door to apocalyptic faith and intimacy with Tsar Alexander I, whom she prompted to initiate the Grand Alliance. She was known for her wild expenditures and charismatic proselytizing and is the subject of more than a dozen books. In good condition. ¶Ungherini, Manuel de bibliographie...des femmes célèbres II(2): 110; Giraud, Nouvelle bibliographie du roman… Read More

Florence: L. Torrentino, 1551. CONTEMPORARY LACE-CASED INTERIM VELLUM BINDING (soiled), 17th-century manuscript spine title, contemporary manuscript-lettered title on the bottom edge, evidence of four pigskin ties, edges gauffered in blind; spine lining from a medieval vellum manuscript.             A REMARKABLE COPY PRESERVED IN A WHOLLY UNREMARKABLE TEMPORARY BINDING. This example is large, substantially taller and wider than, for instance, Jean Grolier's on ordinary - median folio - paper, measuring 350 x 250 mm. and bound in contemporary morocco.            Pausanias' 2nd-century C.E. Greek travelogue of Greece records local history, legends, customs and superstitions. His firsthand observations on temples, monuments and ruins remain essential for archeologists today.           First Edition of the first complete translation into any language, which remained the standard in Latin into the 19th century. This version, by Romolo Amaseo (1489-1552), a leading humanist, was completed… Read More

Breslau: D. Müller, 1629. Marbled boards (spine defective). Filled with pastoral imagery, these verses play on the name of the estate of the dedicatee, Duke Heinrich Wenzel von Münsterberg-Öls. Second printing, issued the same year as the first (slightly browned). ¶Dünnhaupt, Personalbibliographien zu den Drucken des Barock IV: 3041,105.2.

Padua: Giovanni Manfrè for the Seminary Press, 1737. CONTEMPORARY ROMAN GILT CALF BY THE SALVIONI WORKSHOP, outer border of a geometric and foliage roll around a rich frame of double fillet interlaced volutes incorporating lattice work, acanthus leaves, drawer handle ornament, small blooms, acorns, dots and THE SODERINI ARMS IN THE CORNERS. Long stem flowers, stars, sphynxes, acanthus, palmettes, small blooms and dots frame the central mottled leather panel. Gilt spine (slightly rubbed, hinges worn) with a pair of tritons playing trumpets in each compartment, gilt red morocco label, gilt board edges and turn-ins, pink speckled paper endleaves, all edges gilt. Only Edition: a deluxe large-paper copy. This highly decorative historical biography includes THE SODERINI ARMS IN NEARLY EVERY ILLUSTRATION, including the engraved borders. Roman patrician Antonfrancesco Soderini (1660-1743) financed the book and commissioned Roman artists to design (G. Odam) and cut (P. Pilaja) the plates.            … Read More

Rudolstadt: Court Printer C.P. Fröbel for J.K. Krieger in Kassel, 1817. Contemporary speckled sheep-backed marbled boards (worn), gilt-ruled flat spine. With: Walther, Friedrich Ludwig.             Die Lehre vom Dung.  Anspach, B.F Haueisen 1787. 8vo. xvi, 55p. With: Fischer, August Wilhelm.            Ueber das neu erfundene allgemeine Befruchtungsmittel der Erde. Magdeburg, J.C. Giesecken [1795]. 8vo. viii, 56p.               Ad I-III: Three treatises on agriculture and horticulture: the first two are first editions. Thon (I) treats the cultivation of various species of currants and gooseberries for wine. Walther (II) investigates manure and its uses. He includes a calendar for field fertilization. Fischer (III) advertises his "newly invented" fertilizer and its potential applications by farmers and gardeners (first published in 1794). Only the Thon is held by any North American institution. A modest copy (foxed, first quarter of the volume stained). ¶Ad I: Engelmann,… Read More