Rare books from Asher Rare Books

24, 454, [25], [1 blank] pp.First edition of Agelli's translation (and first separate edition of any version) of Cyril's "the adoration and worship of God in spirit and in truth", a commentary on the Old Testament concerning Mosaic law, written in the form of a dialogue between Cyril and Palladius. It is the first commentary by the patriarch of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 376-444), whose "precision, accuracy, and skill … as a theologian has often been remarked" (The Oxford Dictionary of Saints). "St. Cyril uncovers this mysterious, allegorical, and immutable sense of Mosaic Law and adds a coherent sketch of Old Testament foundations of spiritual preparation. In particular he dwells on the Old Testament prototypes of the Church" (Florovsky). It is published by the female printer Sybille de la Porte (1540-1608), widow of the printer Henry de Gabiano.With 17th-century owner's inscription on title-page. In very good condition with a minor water stain in the outer margin of ca. 20 leaves, some… Read More

[10], "1063" [=1065], [23] pp.Large paper copy of the first edition, in the original Dutch, of the standard biography of the great Dutch naval hero Admiral Michiel Adriaansz. de Ruyter (1607-1676), who scored several major victories against the French and English, the best known abroad being the Raid on Chatham, one of the worst defeats of the British Royal Navy. For the present work Brandt used numerous original documents from De Ruyter's son and other private individuals, as well as from official government sources. "This resulted in a book that was not only based on good information, but through his exalted, lucid and engaging style also became a true folk-book in the best sense of the word" (NNBW).De Ruyter fought the English off the coast of West Africa, the Caribbean, temporarily took St John's, New Foundland, and even considered retaking New York.While the binding is somewhat scuffed along the spine, the book itself is in very good condition, with only an occasional spot.l Alden & Landis… Read More

IX, [1], 687, [1], 8 pp.First edition of the famous account of the first mission and expedition through southern Africa undertaken by the Scottish physician, missionary and explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873). The account narrates chronologically his travels and experiences, including numerous descriptions of African tribes and chiefs, deserts, rivers, lakes, forests, cities, diseases, animals, trees, etc. Livingstone arrived in July 1841 at Kuruman in southern Africa. " In 1841-43 he travelled a considerable distance to the north of Kuruman and selected for his future operations the valley of Mabotsa (Mabotse)" (Howgego). He changed station several times in the following years and was the first European to locate Lake Ngami (Botswana) in 1849. In 1852 Livingstone left Cape Town travelling north, trying to find a suitable location on the Zambezi for a missionary station, and travelled further to Luanda (Angola), where he arrived in 1854. He decided to travel back to Lintanti (Botswana) and further… Read More

[1], [1 blank], 36 pp.Very rare report to the governing board of Cuba about a trial sugar mill, brought from France to Cuba by Alejandro Oliván (1796-1878). In the early 1830s the Cuban Real Junta de Fomento commissioned Oliván, then one of Cuba’s leading experts on sugar production, to travel to Jamaica and Europe in search of the best system for manufacturing sugar. He returned with plans for a new kind of sugar train (the series of kettles used to boil down the extracted juice), recommended by the French engineer Derosne. This new train differs from the existing Jamaican trains because it used a vacuum apparatus to evaporate a sugar solution, concentrating it for crystallization, rather than passing the sugar through a series of pans with holes of decreasing size. Nevertheless, up to at least 1840, the Jamaican trains dominated the Cuban sugar production.Wrappers lacking, otherwise in very good condition. A very rare pamphlet.l Fraginals, The sugarmill: the socioeconomic complex of sugar in… Read More

[1], [1 blank], [6], XXXIX, [23], 475, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 431, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], 421, [1 blank]; [1], [1 blank], [6], 303, [3 blank] pp.First edition printed in the Netherlands of the history of Timur (Tamerlane) by the Persian historian Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (d. 1454), who was a close companion of Tamerlane's successor, Shah Rukh. Shak Rukh's son commissioned the book, which Yazdi probably wrote between 1424 and 1428, originally entitled Zafarnama: "The book of victory". He based much of his work on an earlier but less extensive Zafernama, written by the historian Nizam ad-Din Shami, a contemporary of Tamerlane. The first volume opens with an engraved portrait of Tamerlane. Included are maps of Transoxiana, Mongolia, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, a general map of Asia and a map depicting Tamerlane's expeditions in and around India.Occasionally some minor foxing and some small spots. Bindings only very slightly rubbed. Overall in very good condition.l Elwell-Sutton, Bibliographical… Read More

[6], LXXIV, [2]; [4], [10] pp.Presentation copy of one of the most beautifully produced works on cattle, by the "zootechnician", Émile Baudement (1810-1864). The 87 plates of bovine animals are arranged by origin, each region with its own part-title: England, Holland and Denmark, Switzerland and Germany, (the empire of) Austria, and France. Many of the excellent plates are after photographs by Adrien Nadar. Artists like Emile van Marcke, Isodore Bonheur and Barye contributed to this work. "The plates were produced by a mixed process of photographic transposing on to a metal plate (heliography) followed by handwork of various kinds - soft ground etching, mezzotint and aquatint, the background tint being achieved by lithography" (Boalch).While regular copies are bound in green half roan, with plain cloth sides, the present set is bound in red half morocco, with gold-blocked red cloth sides with the note "offert par le Minstre de l'Agriculture". All copies include a preliminary "rapport" on the work by… Read More

76 pp.18th-century French chapbook edition of one of the most popular picture books in Europe since the Middle Ages. It depicts two Dances of Death: first the Dance of Death of men of all ranks and professions, followed by the Dance of Death of women of various ranks and stations in life. These Dances of Death were meant to remind people that everybody was mortal however powerful in life, and to warn people to be prepared to die at any moment.Browned throughout, some occasional foxing and a small piece torn from the margin of page 19, not affecting text or illustration. Overall a good copy.l Oberlé, La Bibl. Bleue, 1; Nisard II, p. 284: "Le plus beau des livres de la Bibliothèque Bleue".

[8], 342, [2] pp.First and only Dutch translation of Cattle, their breeds, management, and diseases (London, 1834) by the English veterinary surgeon William Youatt (1776-1847). The lithographic illustrations in the present Dutch translation are after the original uncoloured English engravings, but in the present copy they are carefully hand-coloured.The translator, Evert Cornelis Enklaar (1799-1880), was an authority on Dutch agriculture in his time. He was the author of the influential Dutch agricultural manual Handboek voor den beoefenaar van den landbouw (1854) and many other works on the same subject. The present cattle book is very rare, the NCC only names 3 Dutch libraries with a copy.Folded plates slightly frayed at the margins that stick out of the bookblock. Binding slightly rubbed;l NCC (3 copies); not in Nissen ZBI; not in Cat. Natura Artis Magistra.

387 pp.A complete facsimile reprint of the first edition (1817-1824) of Pierre Joseph Redouté's great work on roses, reproducing his famous flower paintings and the original text written by Claude Antoine Thory. The first three volumes contain the facsimile and volume 4 contains an English summary of Thory's text, additional descriptions of roses by Pirolle and additional plates from the third edition of 1828-1830, and portraits of Redouté (1759-1840) and Thory (1759-1827) by Godefroid and Mauraisse, as well as much new material: a foreword by George Taylor, introduction and bibliography by G.D. Rowley, biographies and bibliographies of Redouté and Thory by André Lawalrée, a commentary on the roses mentioned, with full synonymy and critical analyses by Gisèle de la Roche, an article on botanical Rosarians by William T. Stearn and a short index with modern names.This reprint is limited to 510 copies. The copy reproduced bears Redouté's signed inscription calling it "un des premier tirage et des… Read More

[381], [3 blank] pp.First Aldine edition of Martial's epigrams, the fifth book in Aldus's series of octavo classics set in the world's first italic type, introduced with his octavo edition of Virgil in April 1501. While the octavo format was not new, it had been most common in devotional works and rarely if ever used for classics. Aldus used this format and the small and narrow italic type primarily for works in verse, which had fairly short lines. Perhaps for that reason, he also departed from what were then the normal proportions of sheets of paper. Aldus himself notes in the 1501 octavo edition of Juvenal and Persius that the books in this format "may be more conveniently held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone", suggesting that they are both more portable and less expensive. He therefore met the needs of the growing market of students, as well as men of business who wished to be fashionably intellectual or simply enjoyed good literature. Martial's epigrams,… Read More

VIII, 90, [1], [1 blank] pp.Rare first edition of a work containing 20 adapted prophecies of the French apothecary and seer Michel de Nostradamus (1503-1566). Nostradamus's predictions, first published in 1555 as Les proheties, are here edited by an anonymous author, giving an explanation of and opinion about each prophecy. Each prophecy is preceded by an oval emblematic engraving, 6 signed by the Antwerp-based engraver Pieter Balthazar Bouttats (1666-1756). Since the engravings don't relate to the text, they were probably originally made to illustrate an earlier work, and were reused in the present work.With bookplate. Browned, with some occasional small spots or stains, but otherwise in good condition. Binding worn along the extremities, bottom of spine damaged.l Chomarat, M. & J.-P. Laroche, Bibliographie Nostradamus (Baden-Baden 1989) 372; WorldCat (6 copies).

[16], 156, [2], [2 blank]; [40], 346, [6] pp.Ad 1: First edition of a work on God's creation of Earth, by the well-known Portuguese rabbi, writer and printer Menasseh Ben Israel (1604-1657), who established the first Jewish printing office in the Netherlands. The work presents 30 questions, or "problems", concerning God's creation of the Earth, which Menasseh tries to answer and explain, citing or referring to passages of the Tenach. Problems include "on which day were demons created?" and "was there another world or earth before God created this one?". The preliminaries including an important poem by Caspar Barlaeus, which caused the Amsterdam authorities to consider the reintroduction of censorship for Jewish publications. As this didn't happen, Barlaeus's poem can be seen as an indicator of the relationship between Jews and Christians, and the religious tolerance in Amsterdam during the Golden Age.Ad 2: First edition of a work on the resurrection of the dead by the same author. The work is divided… Read More

A fine colour printed illustration of a Common Hyacinth, Garden Hyacinth or Dutch Hyacinth from one of the rarest of the great flower books, by Gerard van Spaendonck (1746-1822), a proponent of the Dutch school of floral painting. After his arrival in Paris in 1770, he introduced new elements such as elaborate vases and rich fabrics to embellish his sophisticated compositions, and singlehandedly transformed the genre of flower painting in France (Tongiorgi Tomasi). In 1780 he became Professeur de Peinture de Fleurs at the Jardin des Plantes. Among his many pupils was Pierre Joseph Redouté.The book [Fleurs Dessinées d'Après Nature...],was originally published in 6 parts with 4 plates, all parts in printed paper wrappers. The engravings were originally printed in black as well as in colour.In very good condition. This flowerprint is both a truthful rendering of nature and a masterful artwork.l Van Boven & Segal, Gerard & Cornelis van Spaendonck, pp. 178-184, no. 19; on the book cf.: Blunt, pp.… Read More

[10], 466, [6] ll.The first English edition of Ludovico di Varthema’s famous account of his travels to Arabia, Persia and India: a highly important and adventurous narrative, first published in Italian as Itinerario … nello Egypto, nella Suria nella Arabia deserta & felice … in 1510, here published in English with other accounts of travels in exotic lands. All of the early Italian editions of Varthema's Itinerario, separately published, are extremely rare. Varthema, a gentleman adventurer and soldier from Bologna, left Venice at the end of 1502 for the Middle East. Impressed and fascinated, he describes not only rites and rituals, but also social, geographical, and day-to-day details. "I determined, personally, and with my own eyes", he declares in the prefatory dedication, "to ascertain the situation of places, the qualities of peoples ... of Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Felix, Persia, India, and Ethiopia, remembering well that the testimony of one eye-witness is worth more than ten… Read More

A beautiful Dutch whaling scene in watercolour. It shows five large Dutch ships, five smaller rowboats, four whales on the surface being harpooned by the sailors in the rowboats, and two bears in the foreground in the lower right corner. The bears are no doubt supposed to be polar bears, but the artist made them look more like brown bears. While the drawing is signed in black ink in the lower right corner, virtually nothing is known about the artist, except his or her name from the signature: "H. C. Tuyssen(?)".The present scene was inspired by and/or adapted from a famous set of Dutch whaling prints (ca. 1720/25) by Sieuwert van der Meulen and Adolf van der Laen. The initial composition of the scene with the bears on the ice in the foreground reminds us of the print titled "Seylen in 't ys, en soeken na de walvis” (sailing through the ice, and searching for the whale), but it is not a direct copy. The artist seems to have combined parts of three or four prints from the set, to include more ships,… Read More