[Battala woodcut]. Karmakar, Jadubandu (printer). Raja Sabha [The Raja's court].Calcutta, ca. 1840.

The only known copy of a Battala woodcut showing a lively scene at the court of an Indian Raja, with the Raja and eminent courtiers, European colonial officers, musicians, dancers, and even dogs present. This is a very rare example of a Battala woodcut print, which were produced in the early to mid 19th century in the Battala neighbourhood of Calcutta (Kolkota). These prints showed often somewhat crude but evocative religious or secular illustrations, produced for people of the lower economic classes who could not afford the watercolours that inspired these woodcuts. An estimated number of only 100 to 200 prints of these Battala woodcuts have survived, as they were printed on cheap, thin, low quality paper stock.

During the early 19th century, there existed in Kolkata a substantial industry of woodcut printing. The artists, publishers and printers were active in the Battala neighbourhood, in the northern part of the city, after which the surviving woodcut prints are named. Large, single-leaf woodcuts - like the present example - were produced as cheaper versions of the already inexpensive watercolours called patas, which were in turn inspired by illustrated Mughal manuscripts. The patas were sold from stalls in the southern part of Kolkata, near the Kalighat Kali Temple, a renowned Hindu temple that is also regarded as one of the 51 Shakti Peethas of India. It was then, and still remains, an important pilgrimage destination; the patas, and later also the woodcut prints, were sold to the pilgrims as souvenirs. As the Battala woodcuts were inspired by and based on these patas, it is little surprise that one of the most famous Battala woodcuts is that of the Hindu goddess Kali, of ultimate power, time, destruction and change. While most Battala prints feature religious illustrations, other specimens show past and contemporary celebrities, mansions of the rich, fairs and festivals, and other secular themes, including the Raja's court, as in the present example.

The existence of the Battala prints, alongside the pata watercolours, was short-lived: they emerged and became popular in the early 19th century and by the end of the century had almost completely disappeared due to the arrival of lithography, a simpler, less labour-intensive process that was capable of producing cheaper prints, even in colour.

Condition: paper somewhat worn, mainly along the lower margin, slightly affecting the border and lower right corner of the illustration. The top and lower margins have been slightly reinforced on the reverse. Overall in good condition. One of a very small number of surviving Battala woodcuts, the only known example to show the Raja's court.

Benjamin, René, French writer and journalist (1885-1948). 9 autograph letters signed and 1 autograph inscription signed.Paris and Savonnières Indre-et-Loire, 1929-1943.

Correspondence with the publishers of two of Benjamin's comedies, Maurice Delamain and Jacques Boutelleau, better known as Jacques Chardonne, at Librairie Stock.

The earliest letter in the collection, dated 30 October 1929, contains instructions for the title-page of the libretto of "La Pie Borgne", following the adaptation of the 1922 play as a "Comédie musicale" by Henri Büsser.

On 27 January 1930, Benjamin acted as an intermediary, sending Delamain the manuscript of a "short book on a cat" by an unnamed author.

Again on his own behalf, on 21 June 1934, Benjamin offers a comedy to Jacques Chardonne, despite his exclusive contract with Plon, arguing that they are "not made for publishing theatre". For comparison, he mentions the Stock publication of Paul Raynard's "La Francerie": while his piece "relies on a completely different temper", it "reaches a similar conclusion". The publication of this piece did not materialize.

The half-title of Benjamin's novel "Chronique d'un temps troublé" (Plon, 1938) is inscribed to Delamain: "À l'ami charmant qu'est Maurice Delamain, ce livre qui n'a qu'une idée, parbleu, c'est de lui plaire !".

In a letter from 20 June 1938, Benjamin asks for three copies of "La Pie Borgne" ahead of a meeting with Édouard Bourdet of the Comédie-Française: "Je voudrais essayer que le Théâtre Française, qui ne peut pas arriver à jouer mon Balzac, s'intéresse à cette minuscule histoire. Et comme je vais voir Bourdet...".

A similar request for "3 brochures of the Pacha and 2 of la Pie Borgne" followed on 4 January 1942, this time on behalf of Benjamin's daughter, who wanted to perform comedies with her friends so as to "forget that the world is killing each other", which he fully understands: "Voilà que ma fille, avec des amies, veut se mettre à jouer des comédies pour oublier que le monde s'entretue. Je ne crois pas qu'elle ait tort. Il n'y a rien de dégoûtant pour l'esprit comme de penser à l'usage que les hommes font de la vie !".

The war reached Benjamin as early as 1939, during the so-called Phoney War, as his son was stationed in "the bad corner of the Saar", leavinghis gather sleepless with worry. Benjamin asks Delamain for names and addresses of French refugees in the Charente Department (where Delamain owned a house) who had been evacuated from the Alsace and Lorraine regions in order to be able to help them privately. The letter starts: "Dans ce drame horrible, je me suis résigné à une horreur qui est une collaboration régulière. La mienne s'exerce à Candide tous les huit jours. La question des réfugiés lorrains et alsaciens m'émeut beaucoup. on me dit que le Charente en a reçu des quantités [...]".

Five of the letters stamped by Librairie Stock. Occasional minor tears and creases. Some browning.

Gravollet, Paul, playwright and poet (1863-1936). 13 autograph letters signed and autograph postcard signed.Paris, Rue Singer, December 1901 to January 1902.

To the music publishers Henri Heugel and his nephew Paul-Émile Chevalier (1861-1931), as well as to various contributing composers, concerning the publication of "La Chanson des enfants" - poems by Gravollet set to music by Jules Massenet, J. Faure, Ch. Hess, Ch. Levadé, E. Pessard, P. Puget, P. Vidal, Ch.-M. Widor, A. Wormser (1902).

The postcard of December 14th, to Chevalier, contains news from Venice regarding Levadé, who is going to send his tune soon: "Je reçois à l'instant un mot de M. Levadé, daté de Venise, m'annonçant l'envoi de sa mélodie (vous savez que par son traité avec la maison Enochi il peut ou doit mes livrer quelques œuvres) [...]".

Another letter to Chevalier contains questions on the sum (100 or 125 francs) and time of payment for the composers and the poet, about a verbal agreement with Heugel, and a misunderstanding that needs to be settled: "Monsieur Massenet qui m'avait envoyer à votre maison d'édition, en septembre, après une visite à Monsieur Fauré, j'ai été vous en demander l'assurance dans les termes les plus nets [...]". In additional letters of December 14th, Gravollet pursues the issue, specifying the composers, and wonders why Chevalier did not notice his mistake.

On December 15th, he inquires about permission to publish with a different publishing house and asks for Heugel & Cie's decision whether to publish a series or not.

On December 18th, two letters to Heugel. Gravollet asks for assurances: "Je vous serais donc fort obligé de me fixer [...]". In the second letter Gravollet explains his need for fixed terms.

On December 21st, he again asks for a definitive decision.

On December 26th, Gravollet announces to collect manuscripts by Hess and Widor; Lavadé has permission from Enochi to publish some of his tunes with Heugel & Cie.

On December 31st, Gravollet asks whether he should pick up compositions from Massenet and Fauré.

A letter of January 1st, to Heugel, contains thanks for help to sort out an issue: "Vous avez bien voulu me promettre votre appui, Monsieur Heugel, Je vois bien que sans cet appui, je ne reussirai pas à sorter d'embarras! [...]".

A second and third letter dating January 1st, to either Massenet or Fauré: "J'espère en votre bonté et en votre générosité [...] Il faut au moins que votre mélodie soit encore inédite au ménestrel [...]".

The final letter from January 5th contains thanks for sending copies of the compositions by Massenet and Fauré.

"La Chanson des enfants" was published by J. Hamelle in 1902. The same year, an extract under the title "Un Petit Enfant!" with the music of J. Fauré was published at Heugel & Cie.

Each letter with collection stamp of the "Archives Ménestrel". Slight dust- and fingerstaining, some light stains due to humidity and foxing to the margins.

Goos, Pieter. West-Indische Paskaert waer in de graden der breedde over wederzijden van …Amsterdam, ca. 1660.

The "West-Indische Paskaert" engraved by Pieter Goos, in its rare first state, a nautical chart prepared for the Dutch West India Company (WIC) as an aid to crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the trading regions of the Americas and visiting trading posts in Africa. It shows parts of the east coast of North America, both coasts of South America, Mediterranean Europe and the west coast of Africa. Many "West-Indische Paskaerten", as these navigational charts were called, were reprinted over and over from new states of the copperplates. For more than a century Dutch and foreign seafarers profited from their use on transatlantic journeys. The great cartographer Willem Jansz. Blaeu (1571-1638) published the first "West-Indische Paskaert" around 1630 using manuscript charts and other documents of the Atlantic and its coasts, including information provided by the Dutch WIC navigators who sailed these routes. Being one of the first practical uses of the Mercator projection, Blaeu's small-scale nautical chart was the first useful chart for crossing the Atlantic Ocean, making it easier to plot a straight line course for long distances on one map. Around 1660 Pieter Goos engraved four large navigation charts on new copperplates, including the plate for his present "West-Indische Paskaert". The present copy shows the plate in its first state, the only copperplate that Goos actually engraved himself.

Pieter Goos (ca. 1616-75) was a Dutch cartographer, engraver and printer and publisher of maps and atlases, whose father Abraham Goos (ca. 1590-1643) published many globes and maps together with Jodocus Hondius and Johannes Janssonius. He was especially known for his sea charts and his "Zee-atlas ofte water-wereld" (first edition 1666), one of the best maritime atlases of its time. Goos's "West-Indische Paskaert" in its present first state is of the utmost rarity: 8 other copies are known, of which only 4 on vellum.

The "West-Indische Paskaert" remained one of the Dutch West India Company's most important nautical charts for decades, with several important map printers and publishers producing editions from various plates that went through numerous states. The present nautical chart therefore not only bears beautiful witness to the golden age of Dutch maritime history, exploration and cartography; it is also a very rare vellum copy showing the first state of the copperplate engraved by Goos himself. The map has been professionally restored, with the tears along the edges repaired and the brittle parts reinforced with Japanese paper, and the map is mounted on museum-quality preservation corrugated board which in turn is mounted on museum-quality honeycomb board. Somewhat faded, with a water stain in the left part, some smaller stains, the foot a little frayed (hardly affecting the map) and a little dust-soiled, but overall in good condition.

Schopenhauer, Arthur, philosopher (1788-1860). Autograph manuscript.No place or date.

The manuscript discusses cosmogony and the movement of the planets, mentioning the contributions made by Immanuel Kant and especially Laplace, as well as Kepler's Laws, then expanding these considerations to the level of metaphysics. This is the working manuscript for vol. 2, chapter 6 ("Zur Philosophie und Wissenschaft der Natur") of Schopenhauer's collection of philosophical reflections, "Parerga und Paralipomena" ("Appendices and Omissions") - the philosopher's final work, published in 1851. The "Paralipomena" volume, from which this is taken, contains short ruminations arranged by topic under 31 subheadings. In view of the less-than-enthusiastic reception of the philosopher's earlier publications, publishers were reluctant to commit to this work; it was only after significant difficulty (and through the persuasion of the philosopher's disciple Julius Frauenstädt) that Hayn of Berlin consented to publish the two volumes in a print run of 750 copies - with a honorarium of only ten copies for the author. The subject matter and stylistic arrangement of the "Paralipomena" were significant influences on the work of the philosopher and psychologist Paul Ree, and through him most notably on the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose later work explores - following Schopenhauer - the relation of man to himself, the universe, the state, and women through the art of aphorism.

In the present manuscript, Schopenhauer writes: "The truth of cosmogony, however, is based not only on the space-relationship upon which Laplace insisted, namely, that 45 celestial bodies circle in a uniform direction and at the same time rotate likewise; more firmly still is it rooted in the time-relationship, expressed by the first and third Law of Kepler [...] These thoughts on cosmogony give rise to two metaphysical reflections [...] Even such a far-reaching physical explanation of the world's creation can never satisfy the desire for a metaphysical one, or indeed take its place. On the contrary! The closer one comes to tracking down a phenomenon, the more clearly it appears that it is precisely that: a mere phenomenon, an apparition, and not at all the essence of the thing in itself [...]" (transl.).

The present text begins with the final paragraph of § 85. It corresponds with the printed text in the Sämtliche Werke, ed. by A. Hübscher, vol. 6, p. 142, line 4 up to p. 150, line 19, with the exception of two sections not yet present in this draft (p. 146, lines 11-16, and p. 146, lines 32-page 147, line 7). Most of the parts which Schopenhauer deleted are published in vol. 7, pp. 130-138 and p. 138.

Slight edge damage. Provenance: On loan to the Dresden State Library until 1945; later in a foreign private collection. Sold at Stargardt's auction on Oct. 4, 1989. Schopenhauer manuscripts are of the utmost rarity: auction records since 1975 list only five other autograph manuscripts, only one of which was of comparable length.

Aa, Pieter van der (ed.) / Gottfried, Johann Ludwig (falsely attributed to). De aanmerkenswaardigste en alomberoemde zee- en landreizen der Portugeezen, …The Hague and Leiden, 1727.

Large paper copy of the so-called "folio-edition" (although here mostly printed as 1mo) of Van der Aa's voluminous collection of important voyages to the East and West Indies and other countries, undertaken by all European countries, other than the Dutch. Including voyages by Acosta, Balbi, Cabot, Cavendish, Chester, Columbus, Cortes, Coutinho, Da Cunha, Drake, Evesko, Frobisher, Gallonye, Da Gama, Garay, Garcia, Gilbert, Jenkinson, Harcourt, Herberer, Magallanes, Mildenhal and Cartwright, Mouette, Petelin and Andrasko, Raleigh, Saris, De Soto, etc.

The work is falsely attributed on the title-page to Johan Lodewijk Gottfried, by Van der Aa, most likely because he made good money publishing Gottfried's "Chronicle" in 1702. In reality Gottfried had nothing to do with the present work. The work was edited and co-published by Pieter van der Aa, known for his ambitious projects. Where other publishers were primarily concerned about the profits, Van der Aa wanted to publish outstanding books. For the present series of travels he either reused and revised older Dutch translations or had the original accounts translated for the first time into Dutch. In 1706 he already started publishing the translated voyages both in small (8vo) and large instalments (folio or 1mo), and a year later he published a 28-volume set of the 8vo editions. The folio editions were afterwards issued and divided in four large collections of two volumes each. The present issue, is a reissue of these four collections with their own independent title-pages and frontispieces, and ads a new general title-page and list of subscribers.

While all sets seem to be described as "folio" the present set is printed mainly as 1mo, with some occasional quires in folio. And as the large editions of the two volume sets were available on normal paper (80 guilders) and on large paper (100 guilders; Hoftijzer, p. 43), it seems very likely the present set is one printed on large paper. All leaves are unwatermarked and the 1mo leaves are only slightly trimmed (measuring 396 x 238 mm with the tranchefiles often still visible) the folio leaves are trimmed more and don't have visible tranchefiles. The fourth volume is from a different set which is trimmed down much more, but also combines both 1mo and folio leaves.

Some occasional spots, a couple minor restorations and a few wormholes; a very good set, but with the fourth volume from a different and heavily trimmed set (though printed on the same large paper), in a modern binding and lacking the frontispiece and the title-page to the volume. The seven volumes with contemporary bindings slightly worn along the extremities and with some minor wear on the sides, but otherwise very good.

Scribonius Largus (Jean Ruel ed.). De compositionibus medicamentorum liber unus.Paris, Oct. 1528.

First edition, in the original Latin, of "the first actual dispensatory" (Schelenz), written in the Emperor Claudius's Rome in AD 47, prepared for publication by the French physician and botanist Jean Ruel (ca. 1474/79-1537). It describes the preparation and use of 271 drugs and other medicines (numbered i-cclxxi) and was a standard source for nearly all later dispensaries and pharmacopoeia far into the 17th century. It includes the first accurate description of the preparation of opium, the first known account of electro-shock therapy (using a torpedo fish, a kind of ray, as a source of electrical discharge to remedy headaches) and the therapeutic drinking of one's own blood.

The colophon notes that it was published by Simon Du Bois in October 1528 and the tree device at the end may allude to his name. But although the book has its own title-page and pagination, the main series of quire signatures begins with Aa, suggesting it was also intended for issue following another work. It was indeed also issued as a sort of appendix to Celsus, De re medica, Paris, Chrétien Wechel, 1529 (several of the references below record the present edition only with the Celsus). Although the Scribonius and Celsus name two different publishers, they share most of their typographic materials and clearly come from the same printing office, and the Wechel Celsus explicitly names Du Bois as printer in its preliminaries. Du Bois and Ruel had apparently studied together but Du Bois came under fire as a heretic and had to flee Paris in 1529, moving to Alençon. Curiously, Wechel's 1532 edition of Valturio Roberto, De re militari, has a tree and 2 birds device with the same iconography, style and motto as the present one: a straight-trunked tree with leaves in the upper third, a bird on a branch among the leaves just left of the trunk and another in flight lower down to the left, with more foliage around the base of the tree and a curled bandarole with the motto "unicum arbustum non alit duos erithacos" passing behind the middle of the trunk. Though the match is clearly deliberate, neither copies the details of the other and the other typographic materials also differ. A second edition of the Scribonius alone, without revision, appeared at Basel in 1529. Although the blank leaf 2*4 appears to be conjugate to 2*1 (2*4 is cancelled in Durling 910), Durling records a separate issue with an epistle on 2*4, with the same date as the colophon: October 1528.

With a couple long contemporary manuscript notes in brown ink. With some faint stains at the foot, reaching the text only in the first preliminary quire, and a couple very minor marginal defects, but otherwise in fine condition and with large margins (2-5.5 cm). Binding also fine. First edition (first issue) of a classic of pharmacology.

Daudet, Ernest, French journalist, novelist, and historian (1837-1921). 9 autograph letters signed.Paris, Les Petites Dalles, Château de Millemont, and no place, 3 July 1865 and undated.

Interesting correspondence with journalists, actors and publishers about his writing.

To a journalist, hoping he might announce his latest novel "Les Duperies de l’amour" in "L'avenir" without mentioning any of their mutual friends: "Quoique nous avons beaucoup d'amis communs, par un sentiment que vous appréciez, je n'ai voulu invoquer aucun nom, en vous adressant: les Duperies de l'Amour, petit roman pour lequel je sollicite un mot de vous dans l'Avenir [...]" (Paris, 3 July 1865). On headed stationery of the "Corps législatif".

To the actor Maurice Desrieux (1829-76), whom he offers a role in a theatre production of his 1869 novel "Le Prince Pogoutzine", asking him to inquire after the actor Joseph Ricquier's opinion of the same: "Je vous prie de demander à Ricquier une comédie en 4 actes que je lui avais confiée, il y a plusieurs mois [...] C'est intitulé: le Prince Pogoutzine [...] il y a un bien bon rôle pour vous [...]" (Château de Millemont, 7 Oct., no year). On stationery with printed address.

To a publisher who had intended to produce his historical work "La Terreur Blanche" (1878), but feeling obliged, after having published "Le Procès des Ministères" (1875) with Albert Quantin, to publish "La Terreur" with Quantin as well: "Parsque je tiens la plume, je voudrais vous demander si vous tenez absolument à mon volume sur la Terreur Blanche. Quand je vous en ai parlé, l'an dernier, je n'avais pa encore publié le procès des ministères qui m'a crée certaines obligations vis à vis de Quantin, de telle sorte qu'il m'est bien difficile de ne pas lui douer mon nouveau volume [...]" (no place or date). On stationery with embossed monogram.

To the editor of the newspaper "L'Illustration", hoping that their recent editorial changes might lead to a collaboration, offering to write about politics or literature: "Je prends la liberté de vous écrire, pour vous demander si les récentes modifications qu'a subi l'Illustration ne lancent pas d'accès à une collaboration nouvelle [...] Je serais très heureux de devenir rédacteur de votre journal, soit pour la politique, soit pour la littérature [...]" (Paris, 30 April, no year). On stationery with embossed initials.

Letter of condolence to a friend on the occasion of the death of a mutual acquaintance whom he admired despite not always having shared his opinions: "Depuis trois jours, j'ai bien songé à vous, à votre tristesse, à votre deuil [...] La politique, grâce à Dieu, ne tarit pas chez des hommes tels que nous, la source des émotions généraux, et encore que mon éducation et mes convictions aient faits de moi l'adversair de quelques uns des idées dont votre illustre ami s'était fait le defenseur, je compatis à cette mort prémature [...]" (Paris, 3 Jan., no year). On mourning paper.

The remaining letters concern his anger about a friend's dismissal (likely from a government office), thanks to a colonel for supporting his son, a dinner invitation, and a request to a journalist to publish a short note on his work.

All with signs of former mounting on verso. A black and white portrait of Daudet, clipped from a magazine, is loosely enclosed.

Alciato, Andrea. Los emblemas […] traducidos en rhimas Españolas.Lyon, 1549.

Rouille issue of the first Spanish edition of the first emblem book, by the legal scholar Andrea Alciato (1492-1550) in Milan, first published in Latin at Augsburg in 1531 with only 104 emblems (97 with woodcuts), but greatly expanded up to the author's death. The present edition has more emblems and more woodcuts than any earlier edition, also more than the French and Italian editions by the same publishers in the same year and more than the competing editions by De Tournes. It brings the work nearly to its definitive form. The Macé issue of the present edition is identical except for the imprint and device on the title-page. Alciato not only produced a work that was to continue through hundreds of editions over the centuries, he invented a whole new genre, the emblem book, which combines allegorical images with a brief motto that aims to give the core of the idea and explanatory text (here in verse), the combination of text and image intended to give more meaning to both and to encourage contemplation by the reader.

The first authorized edition, published by Wechel at Paris in 1534, expanded the first edition and included 113 emblems. Aldo Manutio published a second volume at Venice in 1546, but it was in Lyon that the two volumes were first published together, by two competing firms: De Tournes produced an edition in 1547 with 113 + 86 = 199 emblems, but the 86 in the second volume have no woodcuts; Rouille (publisher) and Bonhomme (printer) produced an edition in 1548 with 201 emblems (128 with woodcuts). On 9 August 1548 they also received a privilege for translations into French, Italian and Spanish, and as these appeared they continued to expand the work. The present first Spanish edition of 1549 (one year before the author's death) therefore contains 210 emblems (200 with woodcuts). Ten emblems (all with woodcuts) therefore make their first appearance as emblems in the present edition, and it omits only 2 emblems published earlier: one that was considered obscene and another omitted for unclear reasons. These 212 emblems were to remain the definitive set for future editions. In most respects, the present Spanish edition follows the 1548 Latin edition but Bernardino Daza who translated it into Spanish claimed to have followed a printed copy with corrections in Alciato's hand, making the present Spanish text an essential source for the author's intentions, rather than just a translation.

Most of the emblems are based on episodes in classical literature, so that their woodcuts depict those scenes, but one shows a map and 14 show quite detailed botanical illustrations of different species of trees: these were cut for the great botanist Leonard Fuchs, De historia stirpum commentarii insignes, which also appeared in 1549.

Except for these trees, the emblem woodblocks are believed to have been cut by Pierre Eskrich. Many appeared in Bonhomme and Rouille's 1548 Latin edition and were based primarily on those cut by Bernard Salomon for Jean de Tournes's 1547 edition, but Eskrich made revisions and additions of his own and as the editions expanded he cut further blocks not based on Salomon. Of the 34 woodcut frames, at least 12 are signed, all with the initials "PV", identified as Pierre Vase, another name used by Eskrich. These present a tremendous wealth of grotesque faces, atlantes, caryatids, fantastic beasts, plants and various kinds of abstract ornament. Some show a single scene interrupted by the space left for the emblem and text (one shows a large ship, two show landscapes, etc.).

With several early owners' inscriptions, some struck through; a ca. 1815 bookseller's engraved label of Théophile Barrois, fils, libraire, Quai Voltaire, n°. 11, Paris, on salmon-coloured paper (35 x 54 mm); and an engraved armorial bookplate of the Dublin-born physician in Paris, Sir Robert Alexander Chermside MD (1787-1860). Lacking the final blank leaf R4. As in many copies, the descender of the 9 in the imprint date "1549" has not printed, so that the date looks like "1540" (this has lead to frequent references to a ghost edition of "1540"). A fraction of a millimetre has been shaved off the head of the woodcut frame on the title-page, there is a long tear along the gutter fold of bifolium O1.8, a couple corners of leaves torn off (not approaching the text or woodcuts), a tiny hole in the title-page, occasional and mostly marginal stains and a few marginal reinforcements. In spite of these defects, most leaves are in good or very good condition. Macé's presswork is somewhat inconsistent, but this has more effect on the woodcut frames than the emblem woodcuts (and since the frames repeat, one can generally find an example that has printed well).

Dieu, Ludovicus de (editor). Gêlyânâ dè Yuhannân quddîsâ id est, Apocalypsis Sancti Johannis, …Leiden, 1627.

The first edition of any early text of the Book of Revelations in the ancient Syriac language, a book that had been lacking in the manuscripts followed by the earlier Syriac New Testaments. It is also the first book the Elzeviers printed with Syriac or any other "oriental" type, their earlier forays into printing with non-Latin types having been limited to Greek and Hebrew. The main text is set in two columns, with the Syriac text set in Syriac type on the outside and the Syriac text set in Hebrew type on the inside, an aid to scholars less familiar with the Syriac script. Two columns in smaller type at the foot provide the original Greek text and a literal Latin translation of the Syriac. The whole is well printed and laid out, showing why the Elzeviers were quickly gaining a reputation as the leading scholarly printers and publishers. Thomas Erpenius made Leiden University the leading centre for the study of oriental languages when appointed professor of oriental languages in 1613. He set up his own printing office, acquiring or commissioning types for Arabic, Syriac, Samaritan and Ethiopic, and inaugurating it with his edition of Lockman's fables in Arabic (1615). His death from the plague at age forty cut his work short in 1624. Ludovicus de Dieu (1590-1642), Regent of the Walloon College associated with the University, had studied under Erpenius and his successor in Arabic studies Jacob Golius, but for Syriac he became Erpenius's spiritual successor. The present book was nearly his first publication. Although Syriac New Testaments had been published earlier, no source had been found for the Syriac text of the Book of Revelation, which was lacking in the standard "Peshitta" Bible, a Syriac Old and New Testament whose text was probably established in the 4th century. In his 1599 Polyglot, Elias Hutter therefore filled the gap with his own new translation, but De Dieu published the present text based on a manuscript from the library of the great orientalist Joseph Scaliger, apparently a copy made in Rome ca. 1580 of an ancient manuscript of the Syriac text established by the Persian Philoxenus, Bishop of Mabbug, in Mesopotamia in 508 and corrected by the Palestinian monk Thomas of Harkel near Alexandria in 616. For that reason, Darlow & Moule, Smitskamp and others call the present book the "editio princeps". Erpenius's widow briefly continued her husband's printing office, completing the Syriac psalter that he had begun, but it was published jointly by the Elzeviers and Johannes Maire, and on 9 October 1625 the Elzeviers bought her printing office and took over most of its materials and workmen. At the same time they began to acquire and commission new printing materials, greatly expanding the printing office they had added to their publishing house in 1617. This made the period 1625 to 1640 the press's golden age. Erpenius had commissioned the woodcut of the present title-page for his Arabic Historia Josephi in 1517 and most of the types and fleurons came from him as well. Plantin commissioned the serto and estrangela Syriac types from Robert Granjon for volume 5 (1571) of his Polyglot Bible (Erpenius added and revised a few characters in the serto) and Daniel Bomberg commissioned the Hebrew type for his press in Venice, where he used it in 1517. The lovely arabesque initial V with a face in the centre, however, belongs to a series cut exclusively for the Elzeviers and used here nearly for the first time. The book also shows them beginning to supplement their 16th-century French types (Garamont romans and Granjon italics) with 17th-century types cut in the Dutch Republic. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, the language of the Christian Church and Christian scholars in the first centuries of the Christian era, and a lingua franca among the diverse groups living in the Middle East at that time. But it relates stories that would have first been told (and in some cases probably also written down) in Aramaic, the vernacular language of Palestine in Jesus's time. It also presents Jesus's words in Greek translation, while he would have spoken them in Aramaic. While no early New Testament survives in Palestinian Aramaic, the Greek was translated into Syriac, probably already in the second century, and surviving manuscripts may date back to the fifth century. Syriac, another dialect of Aramaic, served as the vernacular language of much of the Middle East (it has nothing to do with today's Syria, where the native language is Arabic). The Syriac text therefore provides valuable clues to the Aramaic sources of the New Testament. The Peshitta Bible remains the standard text among some Christian groups. Debates continue as to how much of the "original" Aramaic can be found in the surviving Syriac versions.

The watermark in the endpapers (a simple bend) does not closely match any found in the literature, but the nearest is Heawood 129, used in Amsterdam in 1646. In fine condition, with only an occasional minor spot and at the edge of the last few leaves some tiny (0.2 mm!) worm holes, and with large margins (the leaves are a couple millimetres taller than those noted by Berghman and Rahir). The binding is very slightly rubbed but still very good. A fine copy of an important work of biblical scholarship and a showpiece of the Elzevier's press at the beginning of its golden age.

Lespleigney, Thibault. De usu pharmaceutices in consarcinandis medicame[n]tis, Isagoge.Paris, 1543.

Only known copy of the Jean Ruel issue of the very rare second (?) Paris edition of one of the most important early pharmacological books, with about 250 medicinal recipes arranged alphabetically, written by Thibault Lespleigney (1496-1550), apothecary and professor of medicine and pharmacology at Tours, where he first published it as Dispensarium medicinarum in 1538. It inevitably owes something to the ca. 1100 Antidotarium Nicolai, first printed in 1471 and almost the only comprehensive book on the subject when Lespleigney wrote, but it also foreshadows the pharmacopoeias. The term pharmacopoeia (meaning drug-compounding) was coined only in 1561, but is now used to refer to a collection of recipes officially authorized by a government or medical or pharmaceutical association, the first being Valerius Cordus, Dispensatorium (Nürnberg, written in 1542 but published posthumously in 1546). Before that books of recipes by leading pharmacologists served a similar role without any official authorization. Lespleigney's was the most important in France and enormously influential. About 10 editions appeared from 1538 to 1543 in Tours, Lyon, Paris and even Antwerp and Venice. François Chappuys revised, corrected and expanded Lespleigney's text for the second edition (Lyon, 1539), giving it the present title, and nearly all later editions, including the present, follow his revised text. The present edition clearly resembles Arnoul and Charles l'Angelier's 1541 Paris edition in style and layout, but does not follow it line by line. We have not seen the 1540 l'Angelier edition, with the same pagination as 1541, so they may be two issues of a single edition. We have also not seen what may be other issues of the present 1543 Paris edition, reported under various publishers: Jean Foucher, Vivant Gaultherot and Jean du Chemin. All three have the same pagination as the present edition, and at least the Gautherot shares a misprint (p. 206 numbered "209"), the same collation and the same VD16 fingerprint (ame- s,m- g*i* mepr, based on A2r, A6r, A7r and A7v: VD16 fingerprints substitute "*" for "æ"). So we probably have one or two Paris editions in 1540 and 1541 serving as the model for a 1543 Paris edition in four simultaneous issues. The USTC reports 2 copies of the 1540 Paris edition but no other Paris edition or issue. The Bibliotheque Nationale has a copy of the Du Chemin issue of the 1543 Paris edition and notes 2 further copies of the edition, in London (Foucher issue) and Stuttgart (Gaultherot issue). ICCU reports another at the Bibliotheca Comunale Ariostea in Ferrara (Gaultherot issue) and gives its VD16 fingerprint. The Casanata Library in Rome has a copy of the 1541 Paris edition, viewable on Google Books. All editions are very rare: the USTC records 0 to 3 copies for most and more (5 or 7) only for two editions: Venice 1542 and Lyon 1543. After 1543, Lespleigney's work lost popularity, perhaps due to the success of Cordus's 1546 Dispensatorium, but further editions appeared at Lyon under the title Enchiridion from 1546 to 1561, and the only other known Ruel edition appeared at Paris in 1567 (BMC STC French), all still very rare.

The book collates: 16mo: A-P8 = 120 ll., with I1, I3, K1 and K3 missigned K1, K3, L1 and L3 respectively. It is imposed with two 8-leaf quires worked together in each sheet (except that quire P may have been imposed alone, work and turn), so that each pair of consecutive quires contains one watermark divided at the upper fore-edge of leaves 5 and 6 in one quire, and the point-holes fall at the foot of leaves 3 and 4 (on the line where the sheet was divided to make two quires, so half of a point-hole can appear along the edge). Quire B shows a watermark shield (bearing a merchant's mark with some sign or letters above an upside-down 4) topped by a quatrefoil and with a letter or letters(?) below (about 38 x 18 mm, centred in a 21 mm space between chainlines); quires C, E, G, K, L and O show a watermark crown (about 26 x 23 mm) topped by a quatrefoil, with 3 circles in the slightly arched base and letters(?) below (possibly M followed by a curl, or SM), centred on a chainline, with about 22 mm between chainlines.

The fore-edge fold of H5/6 was carelessly opened, so that the upper outside corner of H5 is attached to H6 instead of H5, a couple pages show minor smudges and there is an occasional small marginal stain or tear, but the book is otherwise in very good condition and almost untrimmed, so that the tears that divided the sheets into half-sheets are mostly preserved at the foot (revealing point holes on several leaves) and part of a fore-edge fold survives. The boards are slightly bowed but the binding is also in very good condition. Unique issue of a very rare early edition of a rare but popular and influential pharmacological book of about 250 medicinal recipes: a predecessor of the pharmacopoeias that appeared in and after 1546.

Zarqali, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al- / Bianchini, Giovanni (ed.). Tabulae de motibus planetarum.Ferrara, ca. 1475.

The so-called "Toledan Tables" are astronomical tables used to predict the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. They were completed around the year 1080 at Toledo by a group of Arab astronomers, led by the mathematician and astronomer Al-Zarqali (known to the Western World as Arzachel), and were first updated in the 1270s, afterwards to be referred to as the "Alfonsine Tables of Toledo". Named after their sponsor King Alfonso X, it "is not surprising that" these tables "originated in Castile because Christians in the 13th century had easiest access there to the Arabic scientific material that had reached its highest scientific level in Muslim Spain or al-Andalus in the 11th century" (Goldstein 2003, 1). The Toledan Tables were undoubtedly the most widely used astronomical tables in medieval Latin astronomy, but it was Giovanni Bianchini whose rigorous mathematical approach made them available in a form that could finally be used by early modern astronomy.

Bianchini was in fact "the first mathematician in the West to use purely decimal tables" and decimal fractions (Feingold, 20) by applying with precision the tenth-century discoveries of the Arab mathematician Abu'l-Hasan al-Uqilidisi, which had been further developed in the Islamic world through the writings of Al-Kashi and others (cf. Rashed, 88 and 128ff.). Despite the fact that they had been widely discussed and applied in the Arab world throughout a period of five centuries, decimal fractions had never been used in the West until Bianchini availed himself of them for his trigonometric tables in the "Tabulae de motis planetarum". It is this very work in which he set out to achieve a correction of the Alfonsine Tables by those of Ptolemy. "Thorndike observes that historically, many have erred by neglecting, because of their difficulty, the Alfonsine Tables for longitude and the Ptolemaic for finding the latitude of the planets. Accordingly, in his Tables Bianchini has combined the conclusions, roots and movements of the planets by longitude of the Alfonsine Tables with the Ptolemaic for latitude" (Tomash, 141).

The importance of the present work, today regarded as representative of the scientific revolutions in practical mathematics and astronomy on the eve of the Age of Discovery, is underlined by the fact that it was not merely dedicated but also physically presented by the author to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in person on the occasion of Frederick's visit to Ferrara. In return for his "Tabulae", a "book of practical astronomy, containing numbers representing predicted times and positions to be used by the emperor's […] astrologers in managing the future" (Westman, 10ff.), Bianchini was granted a title of nobility by the sovereign.

For Regiomontanus, who studied under Bianchini together with Peurbach, the author of the "Tabulae" counted as the greatest astronomer of all time, and to this day Bianchini's work is considered "the largest set of astronomical tables produced in the West before modern times" (Chabbas 2009, VIII). Even Copernicus, a century later, still depended on the "Tabulae" for planetary latitude (cf. Goldstein 2003, 573), which led to Al-Zarquali's Tables - transmitted in Bianchini's adaption - ultimately playing a part in one of the greatest revolutions in the history of science: the 16th century shift from geocentrism to the heliocentric model.

In the year 1495, some 20 years after our manuscript was written, Bianchini's Tables were printed for the first time, followed by editions in 1526 and 1563. Apart from these printed versions, quite a few manuscript copies of his work are known in western libraries - often comprising only the 231 full-page Tables but omitting the 68-page introductory matter explaining how they were calculated and meant to be used, which is present in our manuscript. Among the known manuscripts in public collections is one copied by Regiomontanus, and another written entirely in Copernicus's hand (underlining the significance of the Tables for the scientific revolution indicated above), but surprisingly not one has survived outside Europe. Indeed, the only U.S. copy recorded by Faye (cf. below) was the present manuscript, then in the collection of Robert Honeyman. There was not then, nor is there now, any copy of this manuscript in an American institution. Together with one other specimen in the Erwin Tomash Library, our manuscript is the only preserved manuscript witness for this "crucial text in the history of science" (Goldstein 2003, publisher's blurb) in private hands. Apart from these two examples, no manuscript version of Bianchini's "Tabulae" has ever shown up in the trade or at auctions (according to a census based on all accessible sources).

Condition: watermarks identifiable as Briquet 3387 (ecclesiastical hat, attested in Florence 1465) and 2667 (Basilisk, attested to Ferrara and Mantua 1447/1450). Early manuscript astronomical table for the year 1490 mounted onto lower pastedown. Minor waterstaining in initial leaves and a little worming at back, but generally clean and in a fine state of preservation. Italian binding sympathetically rebacked, edges of covers worn to wooden boards. A precious manuscript, complete and well preserved in its original, first binding.

Provenance: 1) Written ca 1475 by Francesco da Quattro Castella (his entry on fol. 150v) for 2) Marco Antonio Scalamonte from the patrician family of Ancona, who became a senator in Rome in 1502 (his illuminated coat of arms on fol. 1r). 3) Later in an as yet unidentified 19th century collection of apparently considerable size (circular paper label on spine "S. III. NN. Blanchinus. MS.XV. fol. 43150"). 4) Robert Honeyman, Jr. (1928-1987), probably the most prominent U.S. collector of scientific books and manuscripts in the 20th century, who "had a particular interest in astronomy" (S. Horobin, 238), his shelf mark "Astronomy MS 1" on front pastedown. 5) Honeyman Collection of Scientific Books and Manuscripts, Part III, Sotheby's, London, Wed May 2, 1979, lot 1110, sold to 6) Alan Thomas (1911-1992), his catalogue 43.2 (1981), sold to 7) Hans Peter Kraus (1907-1988), sold to 8) UK private collection.