Rare books from Musinsky Rare Books, Inc.

Milan: presso Agnello Nobile, 1803. 2 volumes in one, 12mo (157 x 97 mm).  xi, [1], 296; [4], 383, [1] pp.  Contemporary tree calf, smooth spine with red and dark green morocco lettering pieces, small gilt Montgolfier balloon tool at top and bottom, yellow red-sprinkled edges.  First complete edition of an epic poem on ballooning and the first balloon flights.  In elevated verse, the poem provides a history of aerostation and technical information on the construction of the first balloons. Not only a rare choice of topic for the genre, Lancetti's poem is also, with twenty cantos in ottava rima, several containing 130 to 160 stanzas, possibly the longest poem ever written on a means of transport.  Not surprisingly, the author admits to an obsession with hot air balloons in his youth. Having witnessed the first ascension in Italy, carried out by Paolo Andreani and the Gerli brothers in Milan on 25 February 1784, Lancetti decided, at the age of 17, to write a poem on… Read More

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

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

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

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

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

Middelburg: Jan van der Hellen for Jan Pieterss. van de Venne, 1622. 4to (233 x 176 mm).  [16], 60, [19], [1 blank] pp. Large emblematic publisher's mark on title-page, four half-page engraved illustrations, by Pieter de Jode (2), Pieter Serwouters, and Willem van der Passe after Adriaen van der Venne. Woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. Short marginal tear to title, light dampstaining to first and last leaves. Later parchment over pasteboards, ms. spine title. Provenance: Samuel Ashton Thompson Yates (1842-1903), bookplate dated 1894.  First Edition of Cats' retelling of the Biblical tale of Queen Vasthi, the wife of Ahasuerus, who refused her husband's summons to appear before his guests wearing the royal crown (and presumably nothing else), and who was duly punished. The first part of Cats' word-playing verse adaptation, whose title may be translated as The Theater of Manly Respectability, is a long speech in the Queen's defense and in defense of all women, followed by a speech against… Read More

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

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

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

Rome: Gioacchino & Giovanni Giuseppe Salvioni, Stampatori Pontificii Vaticani, 1756. 8vo (210 x 135 mm). [24], 407, [1] pp. 2 parts, the Office of the Dead separately titled. Printed in red and black. Engraved frontispiece and 12 full-page engravings by Arnold Van Weserhout and Jacob Frey after Joseph Passarus (Giuseppe Passaro), two engraved title vignettes and 12 tailpiece vignettes, a few unsigned, others by Frey after Passaro or by M. Schedi (engraver), 3 engraved initials, numerous red-printed woodcut initials. Occasional light browning. 18th-century Roman(?) gold-tooled red goatskin, covers with densely tooled dentelle border built up from leafy plant tools, sprigs, floral and arabesque tools, each cornerpiece enclosing a grid with gold dots, blossom tools and dots in central field, ornamental centerpiece of large foliate, arabesque and dandelion tools, spine in six uniformly gold-tooled compartments, block-printed pastedown endpapers with flower and fruit design stencil-colored in red,… Read More

Paris: [s.n.], 1649. Half-sheet 4to (binding size 106 x 44 mm). Collation: A-C2 (C2 blank). 11 [recte 10] pp. Woodcut headpiece and initial. Printing flaw on p. 4 with loss to first letters of 6 lines. Title-leaf creased. Nineteenth-century quarter brown morocco (extremities rubbed).*** Only edition of an actor's lament in rhyming couplets, describing the conditions in Paris during the siege of Paris that took place in the first year of the Fronde. Not only were the theaters closed - actors silenced, playwrights' imaginations dried up, and all broke - but, as described in the poem, people were starving, young girls were raped, mercenaries roamed the streets of Paris, and even actors engaged in real battles and died. Worst of all, the King and Queen Mother had left Paris. This final break with normalcy was the last straw, and in his final verses the writer (a middling poet) begs them to return, so that their subjects might see them, and that his people might take to the stage again, to dissipate the… Read More

France, 1758. A large, flat satchel (approx. 390 x 380 mm.) of woven hemp and unbleached linen, the front side crocheted with five fleurs-de-lis, geometrical elements including an X and two diamonds, and the date 1758, with stripes of openwork, the scalloped bottom with fringes; the lower or inner side and an internal pocket in plain unbleached hemp; with the original (or early) leather strap, attached on one side with a metal buckle (old repairs at attachment), the other end of the strap stitched to the bag. In very good condition (back and inner panels with a couple of holes and some staining). Provenance: from the collection of Gilles Labrosse.*** This homemade raw linen satchel for a French officer, lovingly crocheted by a wife, mother or sister, with fleurs-de-lis and the date 1758, would have been worn by a cavalry or horse artillery officer, hanging from the left-hand side of his waist belt. Also called besaces, such flat bags were often made of leather and splendidly decorated. This humble… Read More

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

Madrid: por Juan de la Cuesta, a costa de Miguel Martinez, 1619. 4to (212 x 147 mm). [4], 399 leaves. 2 parts, separately titled but continuously signed and foliated. Printer's woodcut device on titles. Double column, woodcut head-piece, tail-piece, and initials. Underlining in pink and blue pencil in second part; scattered foxing, occasional marginal staining or soiling, a couple of short marginal tears due to paper flaws (M3, V1). Contemporary parchment, title ink-lettered on spine, evidence of two fore-edge ties; a few deckle edges (later endpapers). Provenance: Kenneth Rapoport, bookplate, inserted purchase notes.*** The "most complete and most useful edition" (Gratet-Duplessis) of Nuñez's vast proverb collection, first published in 1555, comprising over 8500 short sayings, including some Portuguese, French, Italian and Galician proverbs. The longer second part contains Juan de Mal Lara's Filosofia vulgar (fol. 121 ff.), a more discursive selection of proverbs, first published in 1568. Mal… Read More