Idées cadeaux XVIᵉ siècle – Renaissance & Siècle d'or

New edition after the 1562 original. Rare. Brunet II, 789. Italic typeface edition illustrated with about twenty curious figures in and outside the text, notably associating objects with letters. One copy at Manchester library, we found nothing in France and Germany.

Contemporary full vellum binding, smooth spine with handwritten title lengthwise in pen. One tear on the spine (1 cm). Endpapers restored, the title page has been reinforced with two small pieces of paper on the verso.

Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568), Venetian man of letters and humanist, worked on editions of Italian classical texts (Dante, Petrarch...) in collaboration with the publisher Ferrari and renewed...

Third edition of Giovanni Andrea Gesualdo’s commentary on Petrarch’s Canzoniere and Trionfi, following the editions of 1533 and 1541 issued by the Nicolini da Sabbio, printed in Venice in 1553 by Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari and his brothers.

The Canzoniere, printed in italic type and divided into two parts, is set within an expansive page layout dominated by Gesualdo’s commentary. The Trionfi form a separate second part, with their own title page and distinct dedication. Each part bears Giolito’s phoenix device with the motto Semper eadem and the initials G.G.F...

Recto verso fragments of a manuscript book of hours on parchment with sumptuously illuminated full-page borders. This division into compartments of the ornaments is representative of the production of Rouen and Parisian workshops at the turn of the 16th century.

Two illuminated pages on a recto verso leaf: border divided into bands and fleur-de-lis decorated with floral motifs and scrollwork, gilt initials painted in alternating red and blue and rubrications.
The richness of the illumination characterizes these liturgical books intended for laypeople. Books of hours were at the time jewels of piety, both an instrument of religious practice and a...

Third edition after the original published in Bordeaux in 1593 and a second Parisian edition in 1594. The copy mentions the second edition because it is the second to be published in Bordeaux.
Extremely rare handwritten presentation signed by the author on the page of the endpaper: “Pour Monsieur de Rives en memoire de moy. A Caors ce iiij [4] may 1595. Charron.” “For Monseiur de Rives in memory of me. In Caors this iiij [4] May 1595. Charron.” It is, without doubt, about Jean III de Rieu, Lord of Rives, who belonged to the family of Antoine Hébrard de Saint-Sulpice, bishop of Cahors. Pierre Charron had been called theological by this same bishop of Cahors and became his curate...

First edition of the Marcello Virgilio translation in Latin, dedicated to Leo X. The princeps edition was based on an old translation by Petrus de Abano (ca. 1250-1316), and published in 1478 in Colle di Val d'Elsa. The original text was written in Greek around 60 AD.
Title page in red and black. 45 lines per page. Colophon : "Florentiæ per hæredes Philippi Iuntæ Florentini. Anno ab incarnatione Domini.1518. Idibus Octobris. Leone decimo Christiana[m] Rempub. gerente." Superb Filippo Giunta printer's mark on verso of last leaf. Bibliographical note in French opposite the title page.
Full modern limp vellum binding, all edges faintly bluish.
A lack of a small piece of paper...

Rare edition of this bawdy tale, complete in two parts published separately. It is illustrated with four wood-engraved vignettes, borrowed from Decameron of Boccace (Venice, 1531) and ingeniously twisted to suit their context. This edition is the first text of the author and is unique in that it has not been corrected. The book will be translated in French only in 1792.
Modern binding in full red morocco, the spine in five compartments, gilt date and title, golden fillets surround the cover, the endpaper and pastedown of vellum.
Provenance: Library of Gianni de Marco with its book plate and itsseal.
No copies in an American Library, one in the British...

First edition, rare. Printer's device on title page. Edition prepared by René Du Bellay, author of the epistle. Decorated initials.
Seventeenth-century binding in full glazed blonde sheep. Decorated spine with raised bands. Tan morocco title label. Head torn away. Upper joint split; lower joint partly split. A library label at head. Traces of dampstaining on the last leaves of text and index, but paper overall fresh. Corners very bumped, with borders partly worn.
Undoubtedly the most important chronicle of François I's reign by important actors and witnesses of that time; the Du Bellay brothers were indeed in the king's service as soldiers. These memoirs cover the period from...

A handsome illustrated edition and one of the first printed by Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, dedicated to the Dauphin of France. It has a superb engraved title with Giolito's printer's device (a phoenix being reborn from its ashes on a globe marked with the printer's initials), 56 attractive woodcuts and numerous large ornate capitals, as well as a portrait of Ariosto after Titian in a medallion at the end of the poem, and two states of the printer's device.
The end of the work is made up of a vocabulary of obscure words and an explanation of the difficult passages in the work compiled by Lodovico Dolce, with a separate title and not included in the pagination. Giolito published more...

Paris edition of Olivier Maillard’s Quadragesimale, printed by Jean Barbier for the bookseller Jean Petit and completed on 4 May 1508. Gothic type in double columns, 45 lines to a page. Large woodcut device of Jean Petit on the title-page; numerous white initials on criblé grounds. The text is described as having been collected in Paris from the preacher himself, then carefully revised before printing: “Parisius sub eodem recollectum ac novissime magno labore correctum”. Colophon on leaf 174: “et opera Johannis Barbier, impensis vero honesti viri Johannis Petit bibliopole Parisiensis impressorum. Anno M.CCCCC.VIII. Quarto nonas Maii”. 174 numbered leaves...

New edition for Polydore Vergil's book of inventions and first edition for Cicero's sentences. Fine italic impressions. Printer's devices on the title page. The Cicero edition is absent from English catalogues.

De rerum inventoribus was placed on the Index and republished in 1575 in an expurgated form, and the edition we present is therefore not expurgated. The first French translation appears to have been published in 1527 according to a copy at the University of Glasgow, although contradictory information gives 1528 as the date of the first French edition in Latin by Robert Estienne. Brunet gives 1499 for the date of the first edition.

Half...

Original burin engraving after a 16th-century painting by Maerten Jacobszoon Heemskerk van Veen.
Print on watermarked laid paper, early 17th-century work.

This is an illustration of a passage from Acts of the Apostles, 9.1-3: 

"But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him".

Latin caption in the lower part of...

The first edition was published in 1578 in Geneva. Brunet II, 1076: 'Cet ouvrage piquant a été édité à Genève, en 1578, et non à Paris ; selon plusieurs bibliographes. L'auteur y a prodigué son immense érudition, mais en même temps s'y est permis certaines plaisanteries un peu hardies, qui lui attirèrent une verte semonse du conseil de Genève, par suite de laquelle il jugea prudent de s'absenter... Il en existe deux autres d'Anvers, 1579 et 1583, in 16, qui ne sont guère moins rares que la première, et dont le prix est assez élevé.' ["This piquant work was published in Geneva, in 1578, and not in Paris; according to several bibliographers. The author lavished his immense erudition upon...

New edition. Although we have found no trace of this Basel edition, the first edition was published in Venice by Aldus in 1527 (with a different collation). Not held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and absent from French catalogues. Oxford holds an edition with the same date. English catalogues mention several copies at different dates. Printed in italic type.
Fine contemporary German binding on pigskin with clasps in perfect working order. Spine with 3 raised bands, unlettered, with handwritten paper lettering piece, boards stamped in blind with decorative rolls in frames (leafy designs with medallions representing Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philip of Milan, Martin of Paris...

Collection of 5 royal ordinances on various subjects.

1/ Edict faict par le roy contre tous meurdres et assassinementz qui se commettent journellement en ce royaume, le vendredi, quinziesme du moys de juillet 1547. Title vignette with royal arms.

2/ Ordonnance nouvelle du roy Henry deuxiesme de ce nom, faicte le XV jour de novembre, Mil cinq cens quarente sept:sur le faict de la gendarmerie.

3/ Secondes lettres patentes du roy Henry Second de ce nom, sur le faict des francz fiefz & nouveaux acquestz par tout le royaume de France, publiées à son de trompe & cry public par les carrefours de ceste ville de Paris, le unzieme jour de janvier, l'an mil cinq cens quarante...

Rare first edition. Not held by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Brunet II, 1236. Title vignette.

Modern full vellum binding with overlapping flaps. Plain spine, ties. Light marginal dampstaining to first few pages. Some foxing.

Auger Ferrier (1513-1588) of Toulouse was simultaneously a renowned astronomer, physician and physicist (he was one of Catherine de Medici's private physicians). The work is a treatise on the Spanish plague or Spanish pox, otherwise called the Neapolitan disease, which is none other than syphilis and which had been wreaking havoc in France for some time (depending on the country it was also called the French disease)...

The first French translation appears to have been published in 1549, simultaneously with the Latin translation from the German. Rare. Not recorded at the Bibliothèque nationale de France nor in English catalogues, with only one copy located at the municipal library of Lunel.
Contemporary full calf binding, spine with raised bands and a paper title label. Covers decorated with a cold-stamped rectangular frame and fleurs-de-lis in the corners, with a central blind-stamped tool. Upper headcap torn away, two compartments and half of another lacking. One fleur-de-lis missing. Corners rubbed. A worm track in the lower margin from p. 12 to 32. A few light dampstains on about ten leaves...

First edition of the famous translation by Abraham Loesher, the best and most faithful edition according to Clavier. The editio princeps of this text dates from 1516, printed by the Aldine Press in Venice, but according to Brunet (IV, 454), although rare, it was made from a poor manuscript and was executed carelessly, which gives full importance to the edition we present. Publication date in colophon. Printer's device on verso of final leaf, with the inscription Arion. Historiated initials.
Contemporary full calf binding. Spine with raised bands restored at the end of the 19th century, with fleurons and roulettes on the bands, red morocco title label. Corners restored. On the upper...

The work was placed on the Index and reissued in 1575 in an expurgated version. The first French translation appears to have been published in 1527, according to a copy held at the University of Glasgow, although another source gives 1528 as the date of the first French edition in Latin by Robert Estienne. Rare, like all editions. Not listed in the BnF or in French library catalogues (with the exception of a 1586 Lyon edition), nor in many other library holdings. Brunet gives 1499 as the original date, V, 1135. Le Grégoire cites 1571 for the first edition...
Bound in full brick paper-covered boards, late 18th or early 19th century; title in ink faded and illegible.

New edition. The work was placed on the Index and reissued in 1575 in an expurgated version; the present copy predates that censorship. The first French translation appears to have been published in 1527, according to a copy held at the University of Glasgow, although another source gives 1528 as the date of the first French edition in Latin, printed by Robert Estienne. Rare, as are all editions. Not recorded in the BnF or French library catalogues (except for a 1586 Lyon edition), and absent from many institutional holdings. We have been unable to trace the date of the original edition, likely printed in Italy in the early years of the 16th century, although Grégoire lists 1571 as the...