Rare books from Musinsky Rare Books, Inc.

Frankfurt am Main: [s.n.], 1595. 8vo (155 x 93 mm). [30] pp., [1 blank leaf], 560 pp. Woodcut title ornament, woodcut initials. Fresh, clean copy (single wormhole in text). Contemporary vellum tooled in silver-gilt, edges gauffered and gilt'; lacking fore-edge ties, slightly rubbed, small tear to front pastedown at gutter. Provenance: ownership inscription on title (Hermannij H L) of Hermann IV, Landgraf von Hesse (1607-1658, son of the dedicatee); Nordkirchen Castle bookplate. First Edition of Henri Estienne's "strangest work" (Schreiber), in which he exhorted to war against the Turks, in an archaizing Latin style lampooning the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius (Joest Lips, 1547-1606).  Although later recognized as the "founder of seventeenth-century neo-Stoicism" and one of the most influential Latin prose stylists of his age, during his lifetime and succeeding decades Lipsius, an ally of the Jesuits of Louvain, was harshly criticized, often no doubt for religious motives. Critics mocked not… Read More

Frohburg, 1769. Manuscript on paper (186 x 160 mm). [47] leaves plus two blanks. Fraktur & cursive script. Illustrated with 11 pages (ff. 41v-46v) of weaving patterns. No visible watermarks. Leaves 2-8 with remnants of red wax adhesive. Some soiling and staining. Contemporary half calf (sheep?), the boards covered in very crude comb-marbled paper (worn).*** An 18th-century weaver's manuscript recipe book and collection of weaving patterns, containing over eighty recipes for dyes and twenty-one weaving patterns. The manuscript appears to be in one hand. An addition is dated 1789. The versos of the first six text leaves have small blobs of red wax along the foremargins, apparently the remains of an adhesive: the text implies that color samples were affixed in those places. The Gottlob Friedrich Rose for whom the recipes and patterns were recorded was presumably an apprentice or offspring of the weaver. Each recipe contains a heading in Fraktur identifying the color and detailed instructions… Read More

Venice: Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari, 1546. Bound with: MORATO, Fulvio Pellegrino (d. 1549). Rimario de tvtte le cadentie di Dante, e Petrarca, raccolte per Pellegrino moretto Mantouano. Nouamente con la gionta ristampato. Venice: Francesco Bindoni & Maffeo Pasini, 1546 (colophon 1547). 2 vols. in one, 8vo (155 x 96 mm). Bentivoglio: [1], 2-27 ff. Woodcut printer's marks on title and last leaf, two historiated woodcut initials. Morato: [28] ff. Woodcut device on title & last leaf (large cut of an angel leading a child by the hand). Double column. Both works in italic types. (Bentivoglio with light foxing to title and small gluestain on title verso from removal of a bookplate or clipping, faint dampstain in last quire.) 19th-century English Russia leather, sides with outer gilt rule and blind-tooled panel design with central lozenge, board edges with gilt hatching near corners, spine lettered in gold, gilt edges (upper joint restored, lower joint rubbed). Provenance: J. Hunter, 1813, inscription &… Read More

Frankfurt & Leipzig: Carl Christian Neuenhahn, 1702. Bound with: Wohlangerichtetes Aerarium Chymicum Antiqvo-Novum, oder Alt-erneuert-und reichlichst vermehrte Chymische Schatzkammer. Leipzig: Johann Herbord Klotz (printed in Delitzsch by Christian Koberstein), 1702. Bound with: Praxis Metallica Curiosa, oder Curieus-angestellt und experimentirte Schmelz Proben, so bisher als grosse Arcana, von den Besitzern des Manuscripti sehr secretiret und geheim gehalten worden.  Nordhausen: Carl Christian Neuenhahn, 1701. 3 works in one volume. 8vo (159 x 95 mm). I: [6] ff., 562 pp., [11] ff, [1] bl. f. Additional fold-out engraved title, double-page title in red and black. On pp. 446-447 full-page and half-page woodcuts of beakers with measurements. II: [11] ff. "389" [recte 386] pp., [15] ff. Title in red and black. Two woodcut illustrations (pp. 195-196). The final appendix (unpaginated 15 ff. at end) separately titled (Kurtze Vorstellung der zur edlen Chymie gehörigen Wissenschaft, Bestehend in CLIII… Read More

Leipzig: E. Z. Steinacker, 1805. 3 parts, small oblong 4to (178 x 219 mm.). 20; 18; "19" (recte 20) pp. Each part with half-title only, titles supplied on the wrappers. 12 plates of oval hand-colored tinted aquatints by Geissler. Occasional light foxing to text. Publisher's original pale green printed wrappers (some wear and creasing, sewing loose in part 1). Only Edition, a high spot of nineteenth-century German book illustration, a fine copy in the rare original wrappers. In impressionistic prose an anonymous author delivers a dozen diverting vignettes of salesmen and their customers at the annual Leipzig trade fair, weaving stories around Geissler's masterly hand-colored aquatints. This delightful suite was issued in parts, published to coincide with the two 1804 Leipzig fairs, at Easter and Michaelmas, and the 1805 Easter fair. Together Geissler's aquatints and the text portray fortunetellers, a peep show and its barker, performing jugglers and musicians, Russian dancers, Transylvanian and Greek… Read More

Lyon: Jacques I Mareschal [for Simon Vincent], 1519. 8vo (180 x 126 mm). [30], 500, [54] pp. (with pagination errors). Title and first table printed in red and black, text in two columns with printed marginalia, indices and summary in 3 columns. Colophon on fol. RR4v. Publisher's woodcut device (Baudrier no. 2) on title and final verso, full-page woodcut showing the six days of Creation, within ornamental border, historiated woodcut initials throughout; red paragraph marks to opening page and red highlighting to the facing woodcut. Mainly faint marginal dampstain in upper margins, light discoloration to outer margins. Contemporary Flemish(?) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, sides with leafy roll-tool border enclosing central panel with intersecting triple fillets forming a saltire design, the compartments filled with a repeated foliate tool arranged symmetrically, one (of two) fore-edge clasps, two catches; many deckle edges preserved (worn, a few small chips to leather, pastedown endpapers… Read More

Rome: Zacharias Kallierges for Cornelio Benigno, 1515. 4to (220 x 154 mm). [240] leaves, including blanks ι6 and Θ10. Woodcut devices on title of Benigno (caduceus, Kristeller 149) and Kallierges (double-headed eagle, Kristeller 206), Kallierges' device reprinted on final verso. Fols. β1 and A3 (opening pages of Olympia and Pythia respectively) with headings, woodcut initials, and a few lines and letters of text printed in red. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Occasional light spotting or foxing, minor marginal dampstaining in a few quires, most severe in quire ν, early annotations washed from fol. β1. Early 19th-century French olive morocco, sides with triple gilt fillet border, spine gold-tooled and -lettered, turn-ins and board edges gilt, gilt edges (minor rubbing to extremities, small scrape to front cover). Provenance: Nicolaus Hieronymus Mallarius [Nicolas Maillard], inscriptions on title: Latin motto Expectatio Iustoru[m] Letitia in red ink, with… Read More

[Cologne: Printer of Augustinus, `De fide', 1473. Chancery half-sheet 4to (209 x 147 mm). Collation: [1-28] (1/1r-2/5v Disputatio inter clericum et militem, 2/6r-2/8v Compendium de vita Anticristi). 16 leaves. 26 lines. Type: 100(107). Two 4-line initial spaces. Initials and paragraph marks alternating in red and blue, the first with infill and flourishing in blue. First leaf rehinged, repairs in gutter margin of last leaf, marginal paper flaw to 1/7, some marginal soiling. Old vellum (recased); folding cloth case. Provenance: contemporary inscription on a1r: occam he[re]tic[us]; Charles Lemuel Nichols (1851-1929), bookplate; Mrs. Philip D. Sang (sale, Sotheby's New York, 24 September 1986, lot 144).First Edition of this tract on the proper boundary between papal and lay power, couched as a dialogue between a cleric and a knight, probably composed shortly before 1302 in the context of the struggle between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair of France. The direct target of the anonymous… Read More

Paris: J. Barbou, 1780. 12mo (149 x 82 mm.). [2] ff., xxxvi, 319, [1] pp. Engraved frontispiece of a gardener in classical setting, by Benoît Louis Prévost, Barbou's woodcut device on title, woodcut, typographic and engraved head- & tailpieces. Publisher's list of other works from the Collection d'Auteurs Latins on last page. Printed on pale blue paper (papier bleuté). Fine. Contemporary French gold-tooled red morocco, covers tooled to a dentelle design, smooth spine gilt with flower tools, edges gilt, blue watered silk liners (light scuffing to extremities, faint stain on front cover). Provenance: bookplates of Charles Lormier (oval monogrammed booklabel with motto Vita sina litteris mors est; sale, Paris, 1901-1907); Jules Lemaître (sale, Paris, 18 June 1917, no. 443); Henri Beraldi (sale, part 3, Paris, 18 Dec. 1934, no. 212); and Alain de Rothschild.*** A beautifully bound, bibliophiles' copy of an erudite edition of Rapin's neo-Latin didactic poem on gardens, first published in 1665,… Read More

Rome: Gioacchino & Giovanni Giuseppe Salvioni, 1756. 8vo (208 x 133 mm). [24], 407, [1] pp. 2 parts, the Office of the Dead separately titled. Printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece and 12 full-page engravings by Arnold Van Weserhout and Jacob Frey after Joseph Passarus (Giuseppe Passaro), two engraved title vignettes, 12 engraved tailpiece vignettes, a few unsigned, others by Frey after Passaro or by M. Schedi (engraver), 3 engraved capital initials, numerous red-printed woodcut initials. Foxing, occasionally severe, short marginal tear to fol. Z7.Slightly later eighteenth-century Roman gold-tooled red goatskin, covers with large dentelle border composed of a triple neo-classical roll-tooled outer frame enclosing six large ornaments each with a basketweave design of diagonally crossing gilt fillets framed in volutes and leafy sprigs, a few tiny petal or star tools, board edges protected with a probably later frame of silver or silver-plated metal discreetly nailed to the binding, two… Read More

Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, 1480. Royal folio (390 x 287 mm). Collation: [a12-1 [b8 c-d8 e8] f8 g-m10 n-z8 A-L8 M6 N8 O8 P-Y8 Z8 (Z8 blank removed). 388 (of 389) leaves, unfoliated. Double column. 53 lines and headlines. Types: 2:150 (headlines and headings), 1:102 (text). First page with a four-part historiated woodcut border. Initial spaces. Mostly unrubricated, except in the sections with annotations (including the final table of questions), in which paragraph marks, small initials and underlinings are supplied in red by the annotator. Contemporary manuscript foliation I-CCCXC: a duplicate of sheet L2.7 bound between fols. L7 and L8, included in the ms. foliation. Deckle edges throughout. Watermarks: anchor (cf. Briquet 393, Paris 1479), shield with fleurs-de-lis (cf. Briquet 1742, Cologne 1489), gothic letter p, crown.  Blind impressions of bearer blocks or strips, apparently including pieces of type at fixed points, in fore-margins of several leaves in quires A, B, I, etc. Fol. s8 with printing… Read More

Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 1510. 8vo (141 x 91 mm). [128] leaves. Bâtarde types. Title with small metalcut device of Simon Vostre (Renouard 1108), on verso a full-page metalcut of the Trinity and All Saints, large Pigouchet device on verso of last leaf (Renouard 919), 3- and 4-line metalcut initials. All quires with printed quire signatures on first two rectos and contemporary manuscript signatures on 3rd and 4th rectos. Small marginal repair to title-leaf, catching edge of metalcut on verso. Eighteenth-century mottled sheep-backed paste-paper boards, spine with blue-stained calf lettering piece, edges red-sprinkled (rubbed, extremities abraded). Provenance: contemporary inscription on title  effaced in ink; Carmelites of Valenciennes, later 16th or 17th-century inscription, Carmeli Vallencen[sis]; Maille, 18th-century signature. Probable First Edition of a treatise on the path to spiritual enlightenment, by a fifteenth-century French theologian and teacher, whose mysticism was… Read More

Paris: the Associated Booksellers to the Church, 1600. Folio (362 x 245 mm). Collation: ã6 ê6 î4 (i4 blank) õ6 ũ6 ãã6 êê4; A-Z Aa-Yy6. [38], 228, 42 leaves. Double column, printed in red and black, double rule page-borders throughout. 57 pages with printed music (staves red-printed). Woodcut title illustration of Saints Peter and Paul, seven full-page woodcuts (the first in two blocks: a woodcut border and small Annunciation cut), five small woodcut vignettes including two repeats, and approximately 368 historiated initials in various sizes and from various series. Small tear to corner of title-leaf, occasional foxing, very occasional offsetting of red ink, small stains in gutters in quire O, finger-soiling in Canon (quire X), small rust-hole in f. 212 (NN2) affecting 3 letters, last few leaves with narrow marginal dampstain and slight creasing to upper fore-corners. Bound in contemporary French gold-tooled and -stamped light brown goatskin, covers paneled with double fillets, inner panel… Read More

Nuremberg: Paul Kauffmann, 1595. 4to (198 x 140 mm). Collation: A-K8. [80] pp. Italic (text) and roman types (shoulder notes and preliminary verses), a few words in gothic and greek types, three full-page woodcut coats-of-arm within ornamental borders, woodcut title ornament, head- and tail-pieces and initials, two metalcut tailpieces, type-ornament section dividers. Light spotting to first and last few leaves, overall slight discoloration. Late 19th-century English tan calf, covers with central blind-stamped circular monograms of William Stirling-Maxwell, that on front board with "Gang forward" motto, blind fillet frames, blue endpapers, by Leighton (stamp-signed on front inner board), upper cover detached. Provenance: five lines of contemporary manuscript verse on C3v; Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878), bookplate and supra-libros.*** First Edition of a neo-Latin verse description of Bamberg and chronicle of the abbots of Bamberg's Benedictine Abbey of St. Michael (or Michelsberg), by that… Read More

Granada: Hugo de Mena for Juan Diaz, 1586. 4to (183 x 130 mm). [4], 251 leaves. Woodcut initials opening each of the 12 cantos. The Advertimientos to cantos 2-9 and first 4 lines of that of canto 10 crossed out in ink, apparently by the same early reader who supplied stanza and line counts at the end of each canto. Title extensively repaired, the paper of first two quires rather thinned from washing and dampstained, scattered mostly faint dampstaining elsewhere. Seventeenth-century French(?) gold-tooled red morocco, covers panelled with two double fillet frames, at center an oval fan built up of small tools, flowering plant tools at corners of inner panel; sewn on recessed cords, smooth spine similarly panelled with double fillets, tiny fleurons at corners of inner panel, red-sprinkled edges, later (19th-century) endleaves and front flyleaves (repairs to head of spine, minor wear). Provenance: early ink markings and notations as above; James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell (1871-1948), green gilt morocco… Read More