Notable Sales

Monumental “Lives of the Saints” incunable, with all the woodcuts in contemporary color.

First and only edition with these woodcuts, here enhanced in beautiful vibrant contemporary color, housed in a fine 16th century binding and with fine early and modern provenance. This is the first edition published by Koberger, and the sixteenth German edition overall, however first with this set of woodcuts.

Eighteenth century Spanish artistic binding, presumably by Sancha.

Extraordinary Spanish artistic binding almost surely made by Antonio de Sancha, Royal binder, of remarkable rarity. The French style of the binding is only to be expected, as Sancha studied in Paris (1755) the art of binding. Our binding was probably made c.1762-1765, it contains the Exercicio quotidiano, a series of orations for the day.

The compendium of all knowledge, the first map ever printed, first edition in an extraordinary copy in a contemporary binding.

First edition, one of the most influential printed encyclopedias, illustrated with the first printed map (Shirley 1) of the world, and one of the first books with woodcut illustrations. Simply put, Saint Isidore´s Etymologiae helped shape the way people thought and what they understood to be true in the world during the Middle Ages up to the first years of the Renaissance, as such, it is one of the most influential books ever written.

Xylographic printing by the Jesuits in China in the seventeenth Century.

First and only edition, printed by the Jesuits in Chine in the 17th century, containing memorials to the Imperial throne drawn after the persecution by Yang Guangxian; illustrated with a striking title in white on black, incorporating the Holy Initials and the instruments of the Passion within a sunburst, top is printed the word Innocentia and at the bottom Victrix. The text is in Latin and Chinese, and the whole printed on Asian paper. This is the third in a series of 11 books printed from xylographic blocks in various cities of China under Jesuit auspices between 1662 and 1718.

“Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship”, by Thomas Clarkson and the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.

One of the most powerful broadsides in Anglo-American history, exceedingly influential, exploiting both text and image to demonstrate the barbarity of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. A rare and striking display piece, albeit deeply disturbing.

A unique manuscript witness of 16th century vernacular songs and music.

Visually arresting example of this 16th century attempt to record the purely oral traditions of vernacular Christmas and Advent music in a small town in provincial Normandy (Verneuil-sur-Avre). “Most of these spiritual songs, still touching and naive, often inconsequential, have not been passed down to us; oblivion was to erase, in their simplicity and grace, these humble productions of a popular genre, often confined solely to the memory of those who repeated them from generation to generation…” (Allard). According to the Grove Dictionary of Music, “no 17th century printed collections [of Noëls] survive with notated music, although a few manuscript sources include melodies”.

Third appearance of one of the most important literary works in any language

One of two different Spanish-language translations of Camoes’ epic poem which appeared the same year, attesting to the importance given to the text in the political atmosphere at the time. Arguably the greatest of its genre in the Portuguese language, surely one of the greatest in any language, these Spanish editions were both published during the Portuguese succession crisis, this one in Salamanca, the other at Alcalá, the year of the annexation of Portugal by Philip II of Spain. The latter supported the translation, wishing to encourage, in Spanish, the cultural influence of the newly acquired territory. Conversely, the poem became an emblem for supporters of Portuguese independence.