Francfort-Sur-Le-Main (Allemagne)

First collected edition. No deluxe paper copies issued.
Publisher’s binding in full green cloth, smooth spines, with their dust jackets designed by Adam Rusak, showing only minor and insignificant marginal tears.

Rare presentation copy dated May 1, 1992 and signed by Solzhenitsyn to USSR émigré journalist and writer Sam Yossman, on the title page of the first volume.

First bilingual French-German edition, illustrated with 71 plates and a fortification table.
Contemporary full ivory vellum binding. Smooth spine decorated with triple blind fillets, title and author in pen. Boards framed with triple blind fillets; traces of clasps. All edges blue. Six small contemporary leather bookmarks. Bavarian bookplate of the period.
Spine split with a small loss along its entire length. One joint slightly cracked (1.5cm). A small ink stain on the second board. Pages uniformly and lightly browned. Front pastedown affected by bookworm damage.

Rare first edition illustrated with 38 woodcuts in the text and 4 half-page copper engravings (one repeated). A very fine frontispiece by Hoos.) Brunet, 29030.
Half calf binding with smooth spine decorated with small corners. Green title-label, fleurons and wave-pattern fillets. Late 18th-century binding. Two-thirds of the work has browned text, often heavily. The second part lacks a title page.
Jean Scheffer (1621-1679) was born in Strasbourg, he was welcomed to Sweden by Queen Christina and appointed librarian of the academy and obtained through the Queen's protection the chair of eloquence and public law at the University of Uppsala. He also wrote a history of Lapland. The De re vehiculi is one of his most scholarly works, on a subject that was not often studied, means of transport in antiquity. It is the most complete work on this subject. Brunet 29030.

First german edition of which there were no grand papier (deluxe) copies. 
First German edition which was not printed on large paper.
Publisher's binding in full red cloth, copy complete with its illustrated dust jacket which has some violet ink stains on the inner flaps.
Rare handwritten tribute signed by Hannah Arendt : « Mit herzlichen Grüssen. Hannah Arendt. »

First edition of both texts. The work is illustrated with a total of 50 medallion portraits featuring richly detailed borders of animals, plants, and fantastical creatures, together with three in-text engravings depicting battle scenes. Fine engraved frontispiece title. Portrait of the author on the verso. Decorated initials. The engravings are by Theodore de Bry after drawings by Joris Hoefnagel, inspired by imperial medals. Each portrait is framed by a four-line Latin epigram. The map of Hungary and Transylvania is lacking, as is almost invariably the case.
Later full brown sheep binding. Spine with four raised bands, ruled in blind and with a red morocco title label. Blind ruling to covers. All edges red-sprinkled. Joints rubbed, with a hint of a split at the upper board. A few wormholes and traces, not affecting the text, as well as several browned leaves. A marginal dampstain to a few leaves. Paper repair to the verso of one portrait at page 149 of the second text. The cartouche of the frontispiece title in this same text has been cut out and mounted to a blank leaf; the portrait border has not been retained. Six portraits are lacking from the first text and one from the second. Some early underlining in the text. Ink strike-throughs to the colophon. Discreet Arabic stamp on the verso of the frontispiece title.
The first text is a book of icons, a collection of brief biographies of Ottoman sultans, Persian princes, and prominent Turkish figures (both men and women). Boissard focuses on the dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire from Osman I to Murad III. The second work, also in the iconographic genre and structured on the same model as the first, concerns the kings of Hungary and Transylvania. Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602) wrote these last two compilations while residing in Metz. A renowned antiquary and Neo-Latin poet, he demonstrates in this work the rigorous method of classification that marked his passion as an emblematist.
A rare copy.