Early Printing & Illustration

The Dyson Perrins-Hermann Marx copy of the Ars Moriendi.

Fascinating illustrated incunable Ars Moriendi, or Art of Dying, with a wonderful and rarely seen striking set of woodcuts, a medieval best seller, and one of the great themes of medieval life, inspired in the woodblock books. As with all early editions, this edition is rare. This is a very fine, nearly uncut copy of the Ars Moriendi, which comes from two of the greatest English libraries of the 20th century.

Great woodcut art from the time of Durer: a collection of two splendid illustrated books and a historical work.

Rare first editions of Pinder and von Kaysersberg’s remarkable illustrated works, along with Coccius Sabellicus’ Hebrew history, all housed in the contemporary binding, and in exceptional condition.

The legend of the Swiss Saint Meinrad and the foundation of Einsiedeln Abbey.

First Latin edition, this small incunable contains the account of the life and martyrdom of St. Meinrad of Einsiedeln, illustrated with 21 fine, large woodcuts. Sebastian Brant's rare Latin edition is based on a 12th century manuscript.

Extraordinary copy of the first edition of this “encyclopaedia of contemporary knowledge” (PMM), here with the woodcuts in contemporary color and in uniform contemporary bindings

First edition, a spectacular set with the woodcut in fine contemporary color and housed in uniform contemporary bindings. Conrad Gesner (1516-1565) was one of the great polymaths of the Renaissance and one of the founders of modern zoology. “His History of Animals is an encyclopaedia of contemporary knowledge, intended to replace not only medieval compilations but even Aristotle's work of the same title... Although the Historia Animalium does not yet show any recognition of a connexion between different forms of living nature and fails to conform to our modern ideas of biological research, it was a great step forward and remained the most authoritative zoological book between Aristotle and the publication of Ray's classification of fauna in 1693” (PMM).

The first book with a printed visual alphabet and the first illustration of a chess board

First edition and first issue of this illustrated epitome of the rhetorical arts, representing the first memory treatise to appear in print, the first book containing a printed visual alphabet and the first work to show a printed illustration of a chess board: this woodcut identifies this copy as the extremely rare first issue of the edition, being printed on l. d8r – blank in the second issue, as in most other surviving copies.

Exceptional early Vitas Patrum, with a set of 275 woodcut illustrations in contemporary color, here used for the time for this work

The first edition with this illustration cycle, each woodcut in vibrant contemporary coloring, of this influential early work on the lives of the Saints of Christendom; second German edition overall.

First edition of Goya´s masterful artistic depiction of War, universalizing the theme like never before had been done.

First edition of Goya´s magnificent Tauromaquia, with a marvelous provenance.

First edition, the rarest of Goya's suites of plates, created between 1814 and 1816 and focusing on the drama involved in bullfighting, and a noteworthy copy, owned by one of the most important figures of the art world of Spain of the first half of the 19th century and one of the first Goya admirers, Valentin Carderera, who here presents it as a gift to another relevant figure of Europe´s cultural world, Theophile Gautier, one of Goya's first admirers in France.

Magnificent copy with early impressions of the first edition of Goya´s masterpiece, in a contemporary binding.

A superb set of the first edition of Goya's greatest series of engravings, an early copy printed shortly after the scratch occurred to engraving 45, bound in contemporary Spanish calf and with excellent impressions of the prints. From the edition limited to approximately 300 copies (see Harris).

First editions of three early works of the Italian Opera in England in a contemporary English binding

A beautiful sammelband of first editions of three early works of the Italian Opera in England, including the first and second – 'Almahide' and 'Hydaspes' – sung entirely in Italian, all first performed at Sir John Vanbrugh's Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket during the reign of Queen Anne.

Illustrated incunable Fable Book, with a fascinating contemporary English provenance.

Early illustrated fable-book with 121 popular fables in prose—some of which derive from Aesop—each accompanied by 121 woodcuts from 119 blocks; bound in is a recipe written in English from the second half of the 15th century. “One of the most disarming of early printed books” (Yale, University Gazette, 1968). First published in 1480 in Gouda, birthplace of Gerard Leeu (c.1450–1492), regarded as the most important printer of the Pays Bas and friends with Erasmus; the work was again printed by him, here already in its fifth edition (after those of Cologne, Stockholm, Lyon).

Remarkable work by Miro in the original binding.

Remarkable illustrated work by Miro, number 105 from 220, signed Miro in pencil, with the complete suite of 33 original color etching (in and hors-text) for the ´Canticle of the Sun´ by Saint Francis of Assisi, in excellent condition. The Cantic del Sol, or song to the Sun is an admired production by Miro.

Humanist Renaissance advice for widows on how to behave

Extremely rare first edition of this brief pedagogical treatise written in epistolary form, addressed to noblewoman Margherita Pio Sanseverino, offering an intellectual humanist perspective over the strict rules on female behavior dictated by Savonarola. Printed with the beautiful chancery Italic types by Trissino, which brought forward his ideas on the orthography of the Italian language proposing a reform with new characters inspired by phonetic principles.

The first Hebrew characters printed in Germany

First edition of the “Treatise against the treacherous Jews”, the most infamous among the earliest anti-Jewish polemics, but also the first Hebrew grammar to appear in Germany and the “the first attempt to use Hebrew characters in a Latin incunabulum” (Gordin, 322). Of the utmost rarity, not seen on the market since 1928.