[Yemen - Royal Air Force] [Photographs from the R.A.F. Khormaksar base at Aden].Yemen, 1961-1963.

Nearly two hundred photographs from the peak of RAF operations in Yemen, most taken in and around the RAF Khormaksar base at Aden and including numerous aerial views, photographs of planes, hangars, and installations, views of ships, and likely reconnaissance photographs of the countryside showing towns and landmarks. Many are dated in their standardized RAF captions, which also list the photographer and mark the photographs "Restricted or "Confid[ential]". Several photographs show the 105 Squadron's troop carrier planes, the Armstrong Whitworth AW.660 Argosy, while others capture the early passenger jets in Aden. Uncommon aerial views dominate the collection and show the oil harbour at the Port of Aden, Khormaksar base and airfields, landing strips, and the distinctive mud brick architecture in the city and surroundings. Eleven of the aerial photographs show Royal Navy submarines travelling on the surface, taken from a relatively low altitude. The submarines are Porpoise-class, and include the H.M.S. Tireless (S77), H.M.S. Oberon (S09), H.M.S. Finwhale (S05), H.M.S. Walrus (S08), H.M.S. Talent (P337/S37), H.M.S. Scotsman (S44), H.M.S. Rorqual (S02), and several others alongside the depot ship H.M.S. Adamant. Three photographs show aerial views of an aircraft carrier with an angled flight deck and helicopters, perhaps a Royal Navy postwar class, while another interesting aerial scene captures what appears to be a depth charge test from 1963, the coast of Yemen visible in the background. The Esso Petroleum company's tanker ship, Esso Warwickshire, appears twice photographed from the air, steaming through the waters off Yemen in 1963, along with another oil tanker.

Some loose photographs beginning to curl, altogether well-preserved. Altogether a thorough collection of air and naval power and commerce in Yemen and surrounding waters, featuring RAF aerial footage of Royal Navy and RAF ships, planes, and installations.

Abdulmejid I, Ottoman Sultan (1823-1861). Firman to the Kadi of Egypt.Constantinople, 24 Sept. 1839 CE = 15 Rajab 1255 H.

An important document of Ottoman-French and Franco-Egyption relations: a firman (official letter) from Sultan Abdülmecid to the Kadi of Egypt concerning the appointment of Joseph Vattier de Bourville (1812-54) as the new French consul in Cairo. Sultan Abdulmejid informs the Kadi that, as requested by the French Ambassador to the Porte, Admiral Albin Roussin (1781-1854), Vattier de Bourville has been appointed to fill the place of Ferdinand de Lesseps as consul in Cairo and gives instructions that these orders are strictly to be obeyed and that nobody else is to be approved in the office of consul. The firman refers to the "Ahidname" (treaty) between France and the Ottoman Empire. Interestingly, the King of France, Louis Philippe I, is referred to as "Padishah (Sultan) of France", while the resident French ambassador in Istanbul is addressed as the "Commander of the Messianic Nation".

Three horizontal and vertical folds; some creases. Very light foxing with a small hole and trace of worming. Full transcription available upon request.

[Middle Eastern oil fields]. [WWII map of oil fields in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and West Asia].USA, 1942.

A fascinating wartime map of oil fields and supply lines in the midst of the Second World War, highlighting the vast importance of the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and West Asia for the Allied war effort, which required an immense and constant supply of petrol.

Vying for oil was a constant concern for both the Axis powers and the Allies throughout the war, and one which informed military strategy. Clearly printed in the midst of the Nazi invasion of Russia, with the areas controlled by the Axis powers and the U.S.S.R. accurate for September of 1941, the map is an informative snapshot of the tense mid-war years, with helpful comments hovering over relevant sections: "Oil concession in Saudi Arabia held by Americans", "U.S. aid to Russia goes over new Iranian railway", "Largest single oil field in world" over Abadan, and "German-Italian nationals not permitted in Afghanistan". Axis bases are marked with a swastika, and Allied ones with a four-pointed star. Railroads, pipelines, and shipping lanes are given particular attention.

A stylistically similar map printed on the reverse of the oil map, covered by the backing paper but still visible if held to light, can be identified as a graphic titled "Where Continents at War Come Closest" (focusing on the Arctic Circle), which ran on page 48 in a February 14, 1942 edition of an American newspaper named The Escanaba Daily Press in Michigan; four days later it ran on page 23 of The Rhinelander Daily News in Wisconsin. Likely these maps and their accompanying article ran in many American newspapers in early 1942. Certainly the map itself mentions American interests twice, perhaps hoping to convince the American public of the importance of the Muslim world in the war effort (and regarding American economic interests, pertaining to oil concessions and the dissemination of U.S. aid).

Haifa has been marked on the map in pencil, and another illegible note in ink appears to mark Ashdod, which today is second only to Haifa in oil refining in Israel, though its refinery was not constructed until the 1970s.

Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov). Lenin in the Kremlin courtyard.Moscow, 16 Oct 1918.

A contemporary silver gelatine print of one of the best-known portraits of Lenin, showing the Russian revolutionary in the courtyard of the Kremlin, during a walk in the autumn sun.

At the time, Lenin was recovering from the serious wounds he had suffered during an assassination attempt on August 30th. Both bullets, supposedly fired by the Socialist Revolutionary Fanny Kaplan, were still embedded in his body, but Lenin had taken up work again. To prove to the eyes of all Russia, still struggling in civil war, that reports of Lenin's survival and improving health were not mere propaganda, his secretary and close associate Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich talked the publicity-averse Soviet leader into the courtyard stroll that he directed towards a carefully hidden film team. The friendly ambush, led by the Russian photographer and filmmaker Alexander Vinkler, was soon discovered, and in addition to the several minutes of footage, a few photographs were taken.

The present famous shot is usually credited to Vinkler himself, though some sources cite the Kremlin photographer Petr Otsup. It was widely reproduced throughout the 1920s and 1930s: as early as 1920, the American communist Isaac McBride reproduced it in his book "Barbarous Soviet Russia", and it served as the model for several portraits in the Soviet Realist style, including Isaak Brodsky's famous painting of "Lenin before the Kremlin" (1924, now in the Lenin Museum, Moscow). It is also visible in the background of Alexander Rodchenko's 1935 portrait of Regina Lemberg peering through a Leica.

A fairly dark print with soft contrast, cropped to Lenin's full figure. Slight loss to upper right and lower left corner (the former flaw minutely affecting the background). Stamped "60" on the reverse; publisher's mark "S.F. 105768" in the negative.

Includes a less strongly cropped print of the same image, stamped and annotated on the reverse with the distributor's English caption, showing that it was used to illustrate a newspaper report about Lenin's death on 21 January 1924. His end was hastened by several strokes, very probably complications from the assassination attempt and later necessary operations.

[Marx, Karl / Engels, Friedrich]. Manifest der kommunistischen Partei. Veröffentlicht im Februar 1848.London, 1848.

The founding document of communism: a previously unknown copy of the extremely scarce first issue of the first edition, owned by a Rhenish councillor of justice in the 1860s.

Of this first printing, only 27 copies are known worldwide: the 26 enumerated in Kuczynski's census and one more, sold in Hamburg in 2001. So rare is it that Kuczynski's statement, made in 1995, today requires almost no qualification: "In vain will specimens of the first edition of the 'Manifesto' be sought in the world's great libraries. Neither the Library of Congress in Washington nor the Lenin Library in Moscow, neither the British Museum in London nor the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, not the Vatican's Biblioteca Apostolica nor Berlin's Staatsbibliothek own a copy. All that is left is held by specialist historical libraries or archives, was acquired in passing with posthumous papers or bought and sold by private collectors" (cf. p. 78).

Previous to this copy, only four examples passed through the international postwar book trade: that formerly in the collection of Salman Schocken (Kuczynski B6c: Hauswedell 211 [1976], lot 574 = Christie's Paris, 2008, lot 12); that of Eduard Wiss (B4-6b: Sotheby's 1986, lot 159 = Christie's 1991, lot 314); the Rehdiger copy (B5b: Sotheby's 2006, lot 93); and a copy unknown to Kuczynski (Hauswedell 356 [2001], lot 428). Excepting the Schocken copy, which was acquired by the British Library, none of these recently-surfaced specimens went to institutional collections, and to this date the BL remains the only major research library in the world that has succeeded in acquiring the much-coveted first edition of what is universally admitted to be "one of the outstanding political documents of all times" (PMM). Even the great Karl Marx exhibition held in 2018 at China's National Museum in Beijing to mark the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, as well as the Chinese National Library's 2021 exhibition, dedicated specifically to the Communist Manifesto and co-hosted by the CPC's Zhejiang Provincial Committee, were unable to source a copy, although the 2021 exhibition showed no fewer than 306 versions of the book in 55 languages.

Niebuhr, Carsten, et al. (Johan Louis Gerlagh, compiler and draftsman). Aanteekeningen uit de Reise naar Arabie, en andere omliggende landen, van …Hoeven near Breda?, 1785.

A Dutch illustrated manuscript devoted to the Arabian Peninsula and neighbouring regions, compiled in 1785 by (and the illustrations drawn by) Johan Louis Gerlagh (1735-98), a director of the Dutch West India Company and East India Company (WIC and VOC). He takes a special interest in the various and styles of script, including Egyptian hieroglyphs and at least six styles of Arabic script (kufic, naskh, ta'liq, thuluth, ruq'ah and maghribi), but he also discusses and illustrates bas-reliefs, buildings (including the Great Mosques at Mecca and Medina), musical instruments, footware, a scarab, etc., and provides tables of data concerning tides, compass corrections and temperatures, and accounts of the Islamic calendar, precious stones, weights and measures and coins. The title describes the manuscript as notes from Carsten Niebuhr's "Reize naar Arabië en andere omliggende landen", a Dutch translation (Amsterdam & Utrecht 1776-78) of the German "Reisebeschreibung nach Arabien" (Copenhagen 1774-78), but Gerlagh apparently treats Niebuhr's complementary "Beschryving van Arabie" (1774, first published in German in 1772) as an additional volume of the Reize. All the illustrations and most of the text are copied from these two publications. Gerlagh does make use of other sources, however, quoting from Bernhard von Breidenbach's "Peregrinatio in Terra Sanctum" (1486); Heinrich Buenting's "Itinerarium scripturae" (1581); Fredrik Hasselquist's "Travels in the Levant" (1766); J. F. Martinet's "Historie der waereld" (1780-87), and Joseph de la Porte's "Nieuwe reisiger, beschryving van de oude en nieuwe weereldt" (1766-91).

Gerlagh came from a patrician family that had ties with the WIC by at least 1720 (including a director by 1730) and the VOC by at least 1735. He himself was a director of both by 1764. Although he is recorded moving from Tholen to Oosterhout (northeast of Breda) in 1779, this may have been a second residence, for he had already set up in Hoeven (west of Breda) where he served as "schout" (head of the municipality) from 1771 to 1794, his wife died there in 1786 and he died there in 1798, so he probably produced the present manuscript there. His amateur drawings and sketchbooks, most of them in Museum Gouda, have been exhibited.

The manuscript collates: [A]14 (- A9) [B]10 (B1 + [chi]2; - B7, 9, 10) [C]2 [D]4 [E]2 [F]4 [G]6 (± G1, 2, 3, 6) [H]4 [I]2 [K]-[N]4 2[chi]1 [O]-[P]4 [Q]2 = 73 ff., with E2 and H4 blank except for the leaf numbers (ff. 30 & 34). The main paper stock (including the endpapers at the front and probably also at the back) is watermarked: crowned GR in laurel branches, in a circle = Dutch garden (with "Pro Patria" above toward the centre of the sheet) above "H K P" (the main mark can appear in the left or right half sheet). We have not found or identified the initials HKP. After the last numbered leaf (2[chi]) a new part of the text begins with a different paper stock to the end of the manuscript (quires O-Q), similar but with no initials below the Dutch garden, in the general style of Heawood 3700 (1747) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 140 (1790). The cancel leaf G6± may come from the same stock, while the cancel leaves G1±, G2± and G3± show a different stock or stocks: G3± with a lion with 7 arrows, lance and freedom hat (pedestal with "VRYHEYT") in a crowned ring (double lines inside and out) containing (in mirror image) "Pro patria eiusque libertate"), in the general style of Heawood 3148 (1745) and Voorn, Noord-Holland 104-111 (1713-49); and G1± and G2± with the countermark "J[an] H[onig] & zoon", that form shown with a different main mark in Voorn, Noord-Holland 133 (1741). The firm name in the present form, with the present "zoon" (son), is recorded from 1735 to at least 1764 (probably at least 1768), changing to "zonen" (sons) probably by 1774 and certainly by 1793. So the paper used for these three cancel leaves may be several years older than the manuscript itself.

The manuscript is internally in good condition, with most deckles preserved. Binding worn but professionally restored. A good example of the fascination of leading figures in the VOC and WIC with the Arabian Peninsula and vicinity and with Islamic culture.

[Gastaldi, Giacomo]. Seconda tavola.Venice, 1565 printed ca. 1570.

Rare very early engraved map showing the Indian subcontinent, the Strait of Hormuz, the eastern half of the Gulf, and the Indian Ocean, including the islands of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the Maldives, Seychelles, the western tip of Sumatra and what must be the eastern tip of Somalia. The island Diego Garcia (7° S), labelled "Isole de Don Garzia", touches the southern edge of the map image. The map's own scales indicate that it covers 35°N to 9°S and 60 to 120°E (labelled 85 to 145°E following the Cape Verde prime meridian), but in fact it covers about 60 to 96°E. It is double trapezoidal projection, but tapers only slightly from its widest point at the equator. Many topographic names appear in forms used in early Portuguese accounts of voyages, but most can be identified. In India and Ceylon we find Goa, Mangalor (Mangalore), Cochin (Kochi), Calinapata (Calcutta?), Besinagar (Bangalore), Colmucho (Colombo) and many others; in the Gulf region Cor. Dulfar (Dhofar), the island Macira (Masirah), C. Resalgate (Ras el Had?), Galatia (the ancient site Qalhat), Mazcate (Muscat), the island Quexumo (Qeshm) and Ormus (Hormuz). There is even an unlabelled city close to present-day Abu Dhabi. Two of the ships are labelled with their destinations: Calicut (Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast and Molucche (the Moluccas) in the East Indies.

Gastaldi first published a similar map as one of a set of three woodcut maps in the first volume of the second edition of Giovanni Battista Ramusio,Navagationi et viaggi, Venice, 1554: the "Prima tavola" shows Africa, the "Seconda tavola" shows the regions in the present map and the "Terza tavola" shows Southeast Asia and the East Indies. These were a great advance on earlier maps, including even Gastaldi's own, taking account of new information from Portuguese explorers.

The woodblocks and whatever copies of the printed edition had not yet been sold were destroyed by a fire in 1557, so for the 1563 edition the publisher had the three maps engraved on copperplates by Niccolo Nelli. Bertelli published the three maps without Ramusio's text, and his maps are usually supposed to have been printed from the 1563 plates, but Karrow describes them as close copies, with his name and the date 1565 added in each map, and Bertelli was an engraver as well as a publisher. Although the first map also has a longer note referring to all three maps, they were probably issued separately as well. Although printed from a single copper plate, the present map image is divided into two parts, with a 7 mm gap between the right and left halves, so that nothing would be lost if the map were bound as a double-page plate. No later state is noted in the literature, so there may have been multiple printings with the unrevised plate.

The present copy is printed on a whole sheet of paper, watermarked: coat of arms (77 x 44 mm) bearing a tree on the central and highest of three hills = --, with about 38.5 mm between chainlines except that the mark is centred on a chainline only 25 mm from the adjacent ones. The tree clearly matches the style of the oak tree in the arms of the family Delle Rovère, including the Popes Sixtus IV and Julius II (who served 1471-1484 and 1503-1513), but their arms does not include the hills. The present mark is very close to Briquet 969 (Lucca 1573-1582) and Zonghi 1737 (Fabriano 1571). Likhachev 3636 (an Italian manuscript f ca. 1570) is not as close. All similar marks noted in the literature date from the period 1569 to 1582, so the present map seems unlikely to have been printed in 1565, but very likely to have been printed ca. 1570 (Bertelli remained active to ca. 1580 or perhaps even later). Bifolco & Ronca lists copies of the 1563 (84a) and the present 1565 (84b) state or edition together, but their separate lists of references suggest the present 1565 version is much rarer.

The margins have been cut down close to the plate edge and in places to the outer edge of the border, and the margins then greatly extended (10-14 cm) with blank paper, but this paper is also contemporary, watermarked: coat of arms bearing a ladder and topped with a 6-point star (90 x 27 mm) = --, similar to Likachev 3524 (Loreto 1564). The map is very slightly browned at the edges (where the pieces of paper used to extend the margins were pasted together) and in the gap between the right and left halves (where the old fold has been reinforced on the back), but the map is otherwise in fine condition. A milestone in the cartography of India and the Gulf States, remarkably well preserved.

Balbi, Gasparo. Viaggio dell'Indie Orientali.Venice, 1590.

First edition of this travelogue by the Venetian state jeweller and merchant, containing much information useful to the contemporary merchant, including rates of exchange, duties, travel routes and distances as well as a detailed account of the pearling grounds in the Arabian Gulf. As only recent research by B. J. Slot (cf. below) has revealed, Balbi was "the first writer to record the place names between al-Qatif and Oman that are still in use today" (UAE: A New Perspective, 74). Thus, the present volume constitutes the earliest printed source for the history of the UAE, Qatar, and Oman. Balbi's "interest in the area lay in the pearls that came from the oyster beds of which the most extensive are those in the waters around al-Bahrayn, those off the Qatar peninsula and especially those in the western waters of Abu Dhabi. Either taking his information first-hand from a local individual or using a navigator’s list, Balbi recorded place-names along the coast of modern Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman [...] he is the first to refer to many of these places using the names by which they are known today" (G. King, cf. below). According to Slot, "practically none of the names of places on the coast between Qatar and Ras al Khaima occur in other sources before the end of the eighteenth century" (36). The present work is also of the utmost significance for "includ[ing] the first European record of the Bani Yas tribe" (UAE yearbook 2005, 46) - the first printed mention of the largest and most important tribe of the Arabian Peninsula, from which emerged both the Al Maktoum and the Al Zayed dynasties, today's ruling families of Abu Dhabi und Dubai.

Rare: the present original edition is recorded in no more than some 20 copies worldwide; most libraries hold only the Rome 1962 reprint or the microfiche edition (New Haven 1974). An Arabic translation was published in 2008 (OCLC 298925737); an English translation has not been prepared to this day.

An excellent copy from the library of the Venetian Doge Marco Foscarini (1696-1763; his arms stamped on the covers). Later in the collection of Baron Horace von Landau (1824-1903); his bookplate on front pastedown.

Gauguin, Paul, French painter (1848-1903). Autograph letter signed ("Paul Gauguin").Hiva Oa, March 1902.

To his art dealer and sponsor Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), complaining about an outstanding monthly payment and worrying about the shipment of paintings to Marseille through the famous art dealership Goupil & Cie: "Je reçois votre lettre datée 27 Xb 1901 m'annonçant 650 plus mille francs soit au charge commission de 1618f. à cette date il manque un mois de 350f. Depuis que je suis aux marquesas vous avez envoyé tout 350 Sept. 350 Novb. 350 f + 300 [...] - Decembre 250f. + 1000 f - L'erreur signalée par Sharff [banker from Hamburg] n'est qu'une erreur d'ecritures car j'ai signé par mégarde le reçu de 277 francs au lieu de 277 mark - Il m'y a pas à s'en occuper - Là où je suis inquiet c'est pour la caisse de tableaux. J'envoie immédiatement ordre à Papeete de voir à la Cie qu'elle fasse le nécessaire. Avez vous bien envoyé?? à Marseille l'ordre de prendre la caisse avec le connaissement que je vous ai envoyé. Car c'est je crois vous même ou un correspondant qui doit prendre la caisse qui a du arriver à Marseille en Novembre par le paquebot. Il faudra penser à m'envoyer encore de la toile car /calculez vous même) un mètre de cette toile fait deux tableaux [...]".

In 1901 Gauguin had moved to Hiva Oa, the largest of the Marquesas Islands, hoping to find a society less affected by French colonial rule than Tahiti. Although his expectations for Hiva Oa were disappointed, Gauguin was very productive during his stay there, which was also facilitated by Vollard. One of the most important art dealers in French contemporary art at the time, he became Gauguin's principal patron in 1899 and would support the artist until his premature death in 1903. Vollard paid Gauguin monthly advances and sent art supplies to Hiva Oa, as mentioned in this letter. In return, Gauguin was obliged to sell him 25 unseen paintings a year at a set price. This agreement allowed Gauguin, who for years had been living in financially unstable conditions, to move to the Marquesas Islands and to spend his final months in Tahiti in considerable comfort. After Gauguin's death Vollard organized two important posthumous exhibitions in Paris, helping to popularize a painter who saw very limited success during his lifetime.

With two minor tears and one restored tear.

[Pillone Library - Vecellio, Cesare]. Feyerabend, Sigmund (ed.). Annales sive historiae rerum Belgicarum.Frankfurt am Main, 1580.

First edition of this collection of the leading histories of the Low Countries, edited by Feyerabend. Fore-edge painting by Cesare Vecellio, depicting a scholar seated at a desk overlooking a landscape with the title "ANNA/LES" below; top and tail edges decorated with abstract line designs.

A rare item from the celebrated library of Dr. Odorico Pillone and his father. Late in the 16th century, Odorico invited Vecellio (first cousin once removed of the master painter Titian, under whom he trained) to decorate a number of books in his library with fore-edge paintings, thereby establishing the earliest known private collection of such paintings. As was Vecellio's preferred style, the painting here is of a scholar, brightly dressed in red and a black hat, centered on the fore-edge and additionally visible on the closed edge.

The histories contained are by Jacques Meyer (Part I, Flanders), Adrian Baarland (II, Brabant), G. Geldenhouwer (II, Holland), Jacques Marchand (II, Flanders), and L. Guicciardini (II, in Latin); also, shorter texts by Philip Galle and G. Candidus on the then-current situation.

Corners insignificantly bumped and rubbed, some worming to edges and spine, hinges and endpapers (with chipping to head of spine). Binding shows some dampstaining and soiling. A few tears to flyleaves. Internally generally clean with occasional insignificant foxing and some dampstaining, chiefly confined to margins, as well as minor text block edgewear. Overall a very good example with the fore-edge painting a little worn but still bright.

Provenance: Odorico Pillone (1503-93); Casteldardo estate (ca. 17th-19th centuries); Bayolle of Venice (early 19th century); Paolo Maresio Bazolle (1874); Sir Thomas Brooke (1830-1908; his bookplate to front pastedown); Humphrey Brooke (early 20th century); Pierre Berès (ca. 1947; his bookplate to front pastedown); Jeff Weber Rare Books; Randall J. Moskovitz, MD, Memphis, Tennessee (1990); acquired from the sale of his estate.

[Biblia latina - NT - Gospel of Matthew]. Sixth century uncial fragment of the Vulgate, Matthew 6.22-28, 8.8-16.Italy, mid-6th century CE.

Two fragments forming one of the earliest known Vulgate manuscripts for the Gospel of St Matthew, probably the fourth or fifth oldest, written only two centuries after St Jerome had prepared the Vulgate New Testament, from the original Greek, at the commission of Pope Damasus I.

Early copies of the Vulgate translation are surprisingly rare: the oldest fragments of the Latin Vulgate in North America both date only from the late 7th or early 8th century (Yale, Beinecke, MS 440: pieces of Mark; Indiana University, Lilly, MS Poole 65: a tiny fragment of Luke). Of the ten oldest surviving manuscripts which include even small parts of Matthew's Gospel in the Latin Vulgate, dating from the early 5th to the early 7th century, all but the present example are in institutional collections. All earlier manuscripts and Latin Gospel fragments are either of the archaic Old Latin text or are tiny fragments which no longer include any part of Matthew's Gospel. E. A. Lowe drew attention to the "marked similarity" between the present pieces and the manuscript in the Archivio capitolare of Ancona (101 leaves remaining), which is reputedly and credibly associated with St Marcellinus, bishop of Ancona 550 - ca. 566. Both manuscripts probably date from the middle third of the 6th century; they are older than any complete Vulgate Gospel Book extant and about a century and a half earlier than even the Codex Amiatinus, the most important primary source for Jerome's text.

The texts here are from Matthew 6 and 8: piece (a) recto, from "[tot]um corpus ..." (Matthew 6:23) to "...[no]nne anima plu[s]" (6:25), and verso, from "quam esca ..." (Matthew 6:25) to "...[no]n laborant [nequ]e nent" (6:28); piece (b) recto, from "[dignus] ut intres ..." (Matthew 8:8) to "...occid[en]te venient" (8:11), and verso, from "[e]t recumbent ..." (Matthew 8:11) to "...[ve]spere autem f[acto]". This includes the text of Christ's injunction not to serve both God and mammon, culminating in 'Consider the lilies of the field' (verse 28), and, in the next piece, the healing of the centurion's servant. At Matthew 8:13, a line of dots under the 'h' or 'hora' changes the reading to 'ora' (cured in 'the mouth'), a variant without authority.

Like many of the earliest Biblical manuscripts, the text is laid out "per cola et commata", in short sense breaks for reading aloud a breath at a time. There is no word division. The strips are both from the outer columns of a 2-column manuscript; one leaf separated the two.

The contemporary binding of the "Jus Graeco-Romanum", from which the strips are removed, is clearly continental, in simple plain vellum over pasteboards, and it is most probable that the Gospel manuscript was cut up by a bookbinder in or near Frankfurt between 1595 and 1614-15, when the book's first documented owner, Lord Herbert (1583-1648), visited Germany. An obsolete 6th-century Gospel Book could have reached the Rhineland by any route in the previous 900 years, but the simplest explanation is that it had arrived with the first Christian missionaries to Germany, who came not directly from Italy but from England. In the late 6th and 7th centuries, uncial texts of the Vulgate Scriptures had first been brought to Britain by Italians such as St Augustine of Canterbury, who was furnished with manuscripts by Gregory the Great (Pope 590-604), and St Benedict Biscop, who probably acquired part of the biblical library of Cassiodorus (d. ca. 585). In the 7th and early 8th centuries, many of these same manuscripts, by that time of less value, were then taken back across the Channel to Germany by St Willibrord (d. 739), St Boniface (d. 754), and other Anglo-Saxon missionaries, establishing Christianity in the Rhineland, Fulda, Mainz, Eichstätt, Würzburg, and elsewhere, all in the region of Frankfurt.

Clemenceau, Georges, French statesman (1841-1929). "Jusqu'au bout". Autograph manuscript and page proofs with autograph corrections.N. p. o. d. Paris, 2. or 3. IX. 1914.

Highly interesting editorial for his daily newspaper "L'Homme libre" from a critical moment during the German offensive in France. The first sentence of the article leaves the reader no doubt about the imminent danger: "The Germans are below Paris". A note in pencil by Clemenceau to the upper left margin of the first page of the proofs informs us that he, along with the French government, left Paris for Bordeaux on 3rd September 1914 in face of the threat to the capital. Clemenceau fears a long siege of Paris and frequent interruptions of communication that will necessitate for the French province to reach "autonomy of government and of defense". Otherwise, "all directionality of the French forces will be annihilated". Clemenceau calls for the people to rally behind the government, fearing the grave consequences of a loss of "control over the public opinion". In return, he expects the government to trust the French people "enough to always tell us the truth", citing an example to the contrary of an untruthful communique about the Northern Front. In Clemenceau's opinion, only the harsh truth will maintain the trust and élan of the French people that is necessary for successful mobilization. In the second part of the article, Clemenceau returns to the "facts of war", discussing the French strategy during the German offensive: "This means, if I understand it correctly, that we left the path to Paris open, while flanking the enemy from two sides. If the fortifications fulfill their duty vigorously, the maneuver could be fortunate. From what we have seen from him until now, general Joffre adheres to the school of the delayers. In the current circumstances, there is probably no better tactic." In this vein, Clemenceau speculates about possible consequences of Russian advances on the Eastern Front for Germany and the Western Theater.

The editorial was published on 3 September 1914, two days before the start of the First Battle of the Marne that would mark the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and eliminate the imminent threat to Paris. Clemenceau's criticism of the communication strategy of the government of Prime Minister René Viviani was probably already connected to attempts at censorship of his own journal, culminating in its suppression between 29 September and 7 October 1914. From 8 October 1914, Clemenceau could publish his newspaper under the new name "L'Homme enchaîné". Three years later, Georges Clemenceau himself would lead the country during the final phase of the war and the negotiations in Versailles.

The manuscript on the reverse of stationery of the French Senate.

Somewhat stained and fingerprints over all. Two of the manuscript pages cut in two pieces between paragraphs. The print proofs with occasional small tears to the margins.

[Manuscript prayerbook]. Form zu betten unser liebe[n] frawen mantel, Gebet. [Incipit:] Cegrüest …Ravensburg?, ca. 1670.

A charming, pocket-sized Catholic manuscript prayerbook in German, written in red and black, bound in contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, both manuscript and binding probably the work of a monastery in Ravensburg or the surrounding region.

The manuscript begins with prayers to the Virgin Mary on 19 leaves (a1-c3) and continues with three series of rosary prayers on 47 leaves (c3-i1), further prayers to the Virgin Mary on 28 leaves (i1-m4), prayers for various days from Palm Sunday to Easter on 18 leaves (m4-o5), prayers for the 24 hours on 56 leaves (o5-x4), further rosary prayers in five parts on 21 leaves (x4-z8), the litany of all saints on 20 leaves (z8-2c3), and the litany of specific saints, including St Augustine, on 10 leaves (2c3-2d4).

The manuscript is very regular in its structure, only a few blank leaves have been removed: the final quire used for the prayerbook text itself ends with a blank leaf, followed by stubs of 3 leaves that have been torn out. The quires that contain the text of the prayerbook collate: [a]-[2c]8 [2d]8 (- 2d6, 7, 8) = [212], [1 blank] ff. The 17th century binder trimmed most of the quire signatures (quire a probably had none), but on the first leaf of a few quires one can see the top of the letter that was shaved (confirming the collation): i, k, r, s. The top of some letter or mark, also shaved, can be seen in the same position on c3, f2 and 2d1-4, but it is not clear what they are. The endpapers appear to have been a quire of four leaves at the front and a quire of six leaves at the back, probably each with its first leaf removed and the outermost remaining leaf pasted down.

The paper is almost certainly of foolscap size, nearly all watermarked with the Ravensburg coat of arms (a castle represented as a gate between two towers, standing upon a corbel). The gate in the present watermarks probably has a door under a peaked roof, rather than a portcullis, but this and the initial(s) or other sign in the corbel are difficult to make out because each watermark is divided between four leaves with the central parts lost in trimming. The crenellated battlement of each tower is rounded, has three merlons, and sits directly on a rounded slab, the battlement having no narrower neck leading to the slab. Each tower has one window, connected to the wall on the gate side by (in most cases) two diagonal wires that form a triangle with the wall as its base and the point touching the window. We have not found an example in the literature with this triangular link, but otherwise the present watermarks resemble many from the period 1655 to 1675 (Piccard III, group IX, 171-186 & 253-259, plus many scattered throughout group VIII). Those in quires a, f and probably b and g have two initials (probably "HL") flanking the corbel; the literature shows no initials in that position before 1666. This suggests that the manuscript was probably produced in the period ca. 1665 to ca. 1675. One Ravensburg castle mark in WZIS has an HL monogram in the corbel, but not the initials flanking it, and the style of the castle is completely different: it is not clear whether it dates from 1666 or between 1686 and 1700. Not surprisingly, Ravensburg castle watermarks appear most frequently in Ravensburg (in Upper Swabia, just north of Lake Constance), but also in the vicinity (Konstanz, Weingarten, Salem, Überlingen); they are rare elsewhere.

The endpapers were probably made from one of the paper stocks used for the manuscript itself (one leaf shows one side of the foot of the Ravensburg castle watermark, with no initials flanking the corbel), suggesting that the production of the manuscript and its binding were closely tied, perhaps at a monastery in the region. Three bifolia show parts of a different watermark: two bifolia in quire c show a crown, perhaps from a coat of arms or an Imperial double-headed eagle, while one in quire l shows what may be the foot of a coat of arms or possibly the tip of the tail of an eagle, with scroll decorations.

In a 16mo in 8s, one expects each quire to represent a half-sheet, and each sheet would provide one half sheet with a watermark and one without. Here, eight quires show parts of a watermark in four of the eight leaves, and six show no watermark. But even these quires were not consistently made from regularly folded half sheets: some were assembled from separate bifolia, so that some of the watermarks appear at the foot of the fore-edge rather than its head. Most of the quires a-l and a few others show parts of watermarks in 1, 2 or 3 leaves, demonstrating that they contain bifolia from different half-sheets. In quire e, three leaves show one of the two towers from a Ravensburg castle watermark, proving that they come from parts of two different sheets (c and l, which include parts of a different kind of watermark, also mix bifolia from different sheets).

Indagine (Rosenbach), Johannes ab. Introductiones apotelesmaticae elegantes, in chyromantiam, physiognomiam, …Strasbourg, 1522.

Extremely rare first edition of this important, profusely illustrated Renaissance work on the three occult sciences: astrology, physiognomy and chiromancy. Also called palmistry, chiromancy is the art of reading character and divination of the future by interpretation of the lines and undulations on the palm of the hand. Medieval palmistry was pressed into service by the witch-hunters; after a period of disrepute, it flourished again in the Renaissance, and a block-book on the subject was published as early as ca. 1480. Johannes Indagine (ca. 1467-1537, also known as Johannes Rosenbach, or von Hagen), a Carthusian Prior, was perhaps the most highly regarded German chiromancer of the sixteenth century and "an extremely learned man in many fields" (Gettings, An Illustrated History of Palmistry, p. 177). It is unknown where he gained his considerable knowledge of the natural sciences, namely of astronomy (to which he contributed the invention of two instruments) and chiromancy. He advised the Elector Albrecht von Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz, and it might have been Indagine's horoscopes which in 1519 caused the adjournment of the election of Charles V.

The present work was banned by the Inquisition, having been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum under the decree of Pope Paul IV in 1559 (cf. Thorndike). "Possevin holds that this was on account of the author's astrology, but the other astrologers are all in Class 2. Indagine was placed in Class 1 for his letter to O. Brunfels, published at the end of the volume (which had undoubtedly come to attention in Rome): for this, the author was considered a Lutheran" (Reusch). Illustrated throughout with woodcuts by several artists, including the splendid portrait of the author and his coat of arms, both by Hans Baldung Grien, 11 pairs of physiognomic heads (the pair on fol. 5r also by Grien) and 26 (some repeated) mythological designs representing the signs of the Zodiac attributed to Hans Wechtlin, as well as 37 chiromantic hands (one of fingers only) and 27 numerous astrological diagrams. The work had a great effect on the study of chiromancy and is quoted down to our own day, marking the first beginnings of the fully-fledged astrological chiromancy which was to develop steadily over the next century and a half.

A good, clean copy with remains of six thumb indexes which mark the various parts. Includes the frequently missing two-leaf dedication to Archbishop Albrecht after the title, as well as the final blank; leaf 6 of the first part misbound before the text as usual. Rebound around 1900, trimmed rather closely, with an old catalogue description of this copy (erroneously describing it as incomplete) mounted on the front pastedown: in fact, no index or "blank 4th leaf" are missing (cf. the digitized BSB copy). Of great rarity.

[Latin manuscript prayerbook]. Prayerbook, written by the nun-scribe Anna Schött.Nuremberg, 1487.

A fine monastic prayerbook manuscript, with readings for the various canonical hours as well as other feasts and Sundays of the ecclesiastical year, ending on fol. 59v with the scribal colophon. The prayers are followed by the Penitential Psalms (fol. 61r) and a Litany of Saints (fol. 69v) in which 'Johannes' is singled out in red and blue ink. The Office of the Dead (fol. 76v) follows; the 'Psalter of the Lord's Passion' (fol. 109r) completes the volume.

The manuscript was written by a female scribe who names herself "Soror Anna Schöttin" at the foot of the text on fol. 59v; she locates and dates the volume to "Norimbergiae Anno 1487" at the foot of its last leaf. There were only two houses for women in medieval Nuremberg: the Poor Clares and the Dominican convent dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. While the absence of St Clare from the litany makes the former possibility unlikely, both SS. Catherine of Alexandria and the Dominican Catherine of Siena appear here. The Nuremberg Katharinenkloster was founded in 1296 and grew into a major cultural hub of the region; through gifts and its own productive scriptorium, its library was one of the largest in Germany by the end of the 15th century. The monastery declined rapidly after the city became Lutheran in 1521, and its last member died at the close of the 16th century. A half-page space left by the original scribe on the last leaf is filled with near-contemporary religious exortations which probably show the continuing use of the book at the convent, but the 17th century additions (similar material on fols. 49r, 60r, an endleaf and replacing a line or two of text on fol. 13r) perhaps indicate that the volume was carried removed from Nuremberg in the 16th century and continued in use elsewhere.

By the early 18th century the prayerbook appears to have entered private hands, as shown by the inscribed ownership of A. Büttner (dated Halle, 1708) on the first flyleaf. In the middle of the 19th century it was in the joint collection of Andrew G. Hammond (ca. 1811-67) and his wife Mary S. Hammond, née Ripley (ca. 1820-82), of Hartford, Connecticut (their oval inkstamp on verso of front endleaf, noting this book as their MS 2). Their library is known also to have contained a 12th century English Seneca fragment (Takamiya MS. 85, now in the Beinecke Library in Yale) and a collection of John Skelton's poems in manuscript (later Phillipps' MS. 10112, now Folger Library, Nb49). A. G. Hammond served as cashier and later President of the National Exchange Bank of Hartford; he was also a member of the Connecticut Historical Society. Their son, named after the father, was a neighbour and friend of the Clemens family at Hartford. A. G. Hammond jr. enjoyed a distinguished army career and may have liaised Mark Twain's long and close relationship with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Meyerhold, Vsevolod, Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer (1874-1940). Typed letter signed ("V. Meyerhold").Leningrad, 11 Sep 1935.

To Ivan Fyodorovich Kodatsky, chairman of the executive committee of the Leningrad Regional Council. Meyerhold declares his close kinship to Leningrad (St Petersburg) and asks permission to establish a permanent base there. Writing to Kodatsky, Meyerhold delivers a long and obsequious request to have assigned to him on a permanent basis the Leningrad apartment where he and his wife Zinaida Reich have been staying during his preparations for a recent production of "Queen of Spades" with the Maly Opera Theatre ("Malegot"): his justification is that this would enable him to prepare for a second production with Malegot, of Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" under conductor Samuil Samosud, to mark the centenary of Pushkin's death in 1937.

The letter is remarkable above all as an example of Meyerhold's strenuous efforts to accommodate himself to the official discourse of Stalinist Russia in order to achieve his artistic vision: he speaks of his intended residence in Leningrad as a "fiery dream [...] Perhaps the dream was evoked by Leningrad's atmosphere, where in 1917 I joined the ranks for VKP(b) [i.e. the Bolshevik Party]? [...] and at the old Imperial theatres where, persecuted by the reactionary segment of the company I [...] achieved the production of an ingenious creation of young Lermontov (Masquerade). Perhaps my dream is caused by the fact that Leningrad is my second home: the first is Penza, where I was born, green and studious, and the second - Petersburg (Leningrad), where I started to search for innovations in the field of directing, which had brought me in October 1917 such a weight of knowledge as to help me to become useful to our proletariat in its pursuit of becoming genuinely a cultural part of humanity". His purpose in asking for the permanent allocation of the apartment is in part a response by the senior Party official Boris Pozern to help attract young directors to Leningrad, as well as for theatrical work. "I am asking you to turn a temporary mooring which had been assigned to me into a permanent mooring, where I would periodically drop the anchor of my ship, equipped with a director's intentions, and would consider myself obligated to serve Leningrad as well, giving a Leningrad viewer what, after experiencing Queen of Spades and GOSTIM's [the Meyerhold Theatre's] plays, they would like to have from me. That is why I am inspired by the dream, to do infinitely more for the theatre than I have done previously. I want to belong not only to Moscow but also to Leningrad".

Meyerhold's period at the Imperial theatres in Leningrad in 1907 to 1917 was formative for his innovative directing style. He refers in the present letter specifically to his production of Lermontov's "Masquerade" which was in dress rehearsal at the Alexandrinsky Theatre on 25 February 1917 - the very day on which the February Revolution broke out; the evening has been described as "the last act of the tragedy of the old regime". In spite of Meyerhold's efforts to pander to the Stalinist regime, as in the present letter, the current was turning against him, and the following two years saw increasing official criticism of his productions and style. In 1938 the Meyerhold Theatre was closed down, and in June 1939 Meyerhold himself was arrested, tortured and (on 2 February 1940) executed. His wife, the actress Zinaida Reich, was brutally murdered days after his arrest, undoubtedly by state agents.