Illustrated Books (16th - 18th Centuries)

Rare assemblage of the two parts usually found separated of the Palais. While the Palais de la gloire does not constitute a sequel in the strict sense, it is a second volume envisaged by the author. It remains uncertain why this one appeared with another publisher; perhaps this change, together with the year separating the two first editions, accounts for the constant separation of the works.
Later edition of the Palais de l'honneur, first published in 1663, and first edition of the Palais de la gloire. The first work is illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece by Chauveau and 12 engraved plates of coats of arms.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands, gilt-tooled. Red morocco lettering-piece. Headcap partially worn away (same at foot). Upper joint cracked and split at head along the first compartment. Corners rubbed. Initial leaves of the second work toned. The 12 plates are unpaginated; moreover, the Palais de la gloire begins at p. 288, without any loss, as in all copies (noting in particular numerous pagination errors).

New edition and first printing of the illustrations: a frontispiece, 62 plates and 241 in-text figures as well as a folding plate on the organization of a Roman camp.
Title page in red and black.

Later 19th-century half-vellum binding. Unlettered smooth spine.

Contemporary brown sheep, spine in compartments, headpiece and one corner repaired, wormtrack to middle of upper margin, a few insignificant wormholes. The final engraving is shaved and lacking the last lines of text from the legend. A very good copy.

Du Verney's first work; he was renowned for his knowledge of anatomy and physiology, was tutor to the Dauphin and taught in the Botanical Gardens.

This is the first scientific monograph on the structure of the ear and its illnesses, and is therefore very significant. It played a determining role in the understanding of this organ, whose study had been until then much neglected. Stamp of Doctor Maurice Petit of Montereau.

First edition, translated from German by Baron d'Holbach, illustrated with a frontispiece and 15 folding copperplate engravings.

Contemporary full calf binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Headcaps worn with visible endbands. Joint of lower board cracked at head over first two compartments. Surface wear with losses to upper board. Two corners slightly bumped. Title label renewed.

Compilation of several works on glassmaking assembled and translated by Baron d'Holbach (his preface presents the different authors), notably the important treatise by Neri (1612) who first published the method of making colored glass, crystal glass... Neri's work served as the basis and foundation for all books that followed on the same subject. One will note, among the various notes and treatises, that of Henckel on how to use plants in the manufacture of glassware, and the anonymous one on the secrets of true porcelain. Finally, one will distinguish numerous recipes relating to the art of glass, notably that of cobalt blue, but also concerning metals, with the method of gilding iron, copper, silver, bronzing, the way to produce colors, to dye a reddish horse black...

Manuscript ownership inscription De Montmirail. 1806.

Brunet and Graesse have the first edition appearing in 1756; we have not found any trace of this edition.
With 56 folding plates. A scarce work. Not in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and numerous other great libraries.
Contemporary marbled sheep, spine in 6 decorated compartments. The work consists of a commentary on the notes and propositions left by Marechal de Saxe. These are various, and include the reasons for having a school of instruction for officers, to the use of the bayonet; there is also a curious note on the Tatars and Chinese. 

First edition. P. Michel (works in Italian preserved in libraries in France) VIII, 120. Work illustrated with 95 plates on wood.

Contemporary binding in full vellum, handwritten title in ink. Spine browned and stains on the boards. A clear waterstain on the lower margin throughout the work, not affecting the text.

Giuseppe Viola Zanini (1575-1631), who was born in Vicenza and died in Padua, was a painter and an architect who worked in the Venice area. He was more of a decorative painter, renowned for such, than an active architect; architecture interested him as a means of expression of painted decoration. The work is divided into two parts, the first part focuses on the origins of architecture and its composing elements, as well as the way in which we must build; the second book is entirely devoted to the five orders. This book was largely studied outside of Italy, and in particular by Blondel in France.

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.

Rare second edition by Blaes illustrated with 12 plates. Rare edition by Thomas Syndenham, not found in European libraries. We do not know if this is the first. Title pages in red and black. Absent from Brunet.

Contemporary full calf binding, decorated spine with raised bands, red morocco title label. Rubbing.

This work by Gerard Blaes (1625-1692), Dutch physicist, anatomist (he was the creator of comparative anatomy) and physician who practiced in Amsterdam and was a famous leader in his field, is one of the most celebrated treatises on teratology, the science of monsters.

Thomas Syndenham (1624-1689) was an English physicist and physician, famous for introducing opium, laudanum and morphine into medicine as painkillers and analgesics against pain. The two books by Blaes and Syndenham are medical treatises containing various observations, with the section on monsters appearing after the observations.