Discours de la religion des anciens Romains

Lyon: Guillaume Rouille, 1556

FIRST EDITION of Du Choul's superbly illustrated work on the religious customs, ceremonies and observances of the ancient Romans. Du Choul was one of the first antiquaries to give an interpretation of the images of medals, inscriptions, and bas-reliefs drawing on classical literary sources.

“Du Choul ... literally [owned] his evidence, in the form of the coins that his book so lovingly reproduced. These bits of metal, whose exploitation for antiquarian purposes Du Choul was hereby pioneering, revealed to his proprietary gaze a rich religious life that he inevitably came to think of as his own... Du Choul’s interest in pagan survivals, then, reveals him as a true son of the Renaissance in his eagerness to reach across the centuries that separated him from his beloved Romans and to experience an intense feeling of cultural and even spiritual kinship with the classical age.”–David A. Lupher, Romans in a New World: Classical Models in Sixteenth-century Spanish America

“It was Guillaume Du Choul... who would open in earnest the era of the study of Roman religion itself, in his Discours de la religion des anciens Romains... Du Choul’s work, which soon achieved notoriety ... made us of figurative sources. In particular, Du Choul analyzed coins, many of which had been brought to him by peasants working on his estates.” –Guy G. Strousma, A new science: the discovery of religion in the Age of Reason

Lyon: Guillaume Rouille, 1556. Quarto. Half vellum over paper boards. Roman letter with Italic marginalia, illustrated with woodcut medallions by P. Eskrich in text. Very good overall, occasional light toning, a lovely copy.

$3,750

offered by

[Opera, in Greek]

Folio (320 x 205mm). Bound in modern calf, with elaborate armorial device of Nicolas Chevalier (1532-1630) inlaid on sides (preserved from the original binding). Greek type, Estienne’s device on title. A clean, wide-margined copy; the first few leaves skillfully reinforced at inner margins.

$3,500

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

FIRST EDITION of Vols II-VI, THIRD EDITION of vol I. This is the first issue of Volume I to set Gibbon's footnotes at page-bottom instead of an the end of the volume, a major iomprovement in readability. "To [his] task Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equalled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose" (PMM). Six volumes. Quarto. Rebound in period style quarter calf over marbled boards, the spines gilt with red morocco title and volume labels. An attractive and desirable set. Clean throughout.

$7,500

Romanarum historiarum [Greek]

EDITIO PRINCEPS of Appian's histories of the various Roman wars from the earliest times to the campaigns of Trajan. Folio. 18th-century calf recently rebacked. Title leaf laid down and repaired; lower blank corners of last four leaves repaired (not affecting text). Greek type; Estienne's basilisk device as Royal Greek Printer on title; foliated and grotesque Greek initials with matching headpieces. An attractive copy.

$4,500

Monumenti Antichi Inediti Spiegati ed Illustrata

FIRST EDITION, illustrated with 208 beautiful copper-plate engravings and numerous in-text illustrations and vignettes.Winckelmann is best known for his monumental Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (History of the Art of Antiquity, 1764), which enjoyed tremendous popular success and permanently reshaped aesthetic criticism. The Monuments, his last published work, stands by itself as "a masterpiece of interpretation and explanation" and "a pioneering work in the field of archaeological methodology" (Catholic Encyclopedia; Lappmann). Significantly, it is also the only one of Winckelmann's works published in his lifetime to be extensively illustrated. Folio, contemporary vellum with original red leather label, decorated endpapers. Two volumes in one. Text in Italian. Bookplates. Light wear to binding, very small library number on dedication leaf, small tear to endpaper. Occasional light foxing. Plates very clean. A superb, wide-margined copy in contemporary vellum of the beautifully-illustrated first edition.

$7,000

The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon for The Birds of America

American Heritage Publishing Co., New York, 1966. First edition. Folio. Two volumes. With an introduction by Marshall B. Davidson. Reproduced in color for the first time from the collection at the New York Historical Society. Both volumes fine in publisher's slipcase.

Tableaux, statues, bas-reliefs et carnees de la Galerie de Florence et du Palais Pitti

FIRST EDITION. With 200 engraved plates reproducing the superb statuary, painting, bas-reliefs, cameos and gems of Florence. Four volumes. Royal folio. Contemporary morocco over cloth boards.

$15,000

An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China

FIRST EDITION (Atlas volume lacking)."During the eighteenth century, the English were busy defining themselves in opposition to Catholic Europe, manoeuvring for their destined place in history. Late starters in the race for overseas trade, they were improving their odds at teh very time that the Jesuits' fortunes were on the wane. With them, there arose a new sinology... But before the sinological works came the travellers' tales, beginning with Anson's Voyage, continuing half a century later with [Staunton's] "Authentic Account" of the Macartney embassy, and then proliferating in extraordinary number through the nineteenth century." –Antonia Finnane, Changing Clothes in China.Two volumes (lacking the Atlas). Quarto. Quarter leather over cloth boards (library binding from Westminster Libraries, London). With a portrait frontispiece to each volume and 26 additional engravings. A fresh and clean copy. Small library stamps on frontispiece, title page and occasionally elsewhere.

$2,500

Pontificum romanorum Effigies

FIRST EDITION of Cavalieri's Papal portraits. "[Cavalieri] was probably the single most significant figure of the whole sixteenth century to make visually accessible to a wide public throughout Europe the past personalities and glories of his adopted city.” –Francis Haskell Octavo, 19th century half calf over boards. This issue with an additional gathering a4 and engraved arms of Cavalieri on verso of final leaf, engraved title, engraving of St Peter on a8 verso, second engraved title on [A]1 recto, 230 numbered engraved portraits of the popes, no. 112 in facsimile (pasted); tear on 147-156 neatly repaired without loss, a few light stains.

$3,950

Complete Body of Architecture Adorned with Plans and Elevations, from Original Designs

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with plate numbers within the plate lines and the plate at 70-71 uncorrected and reading“Warwick Shire”.“We hope to lay down in one body the whole science of architecture, from its first rudiments to its utmost perfection; and that in a manner which shall render every part of it intelligible to every reader; to acquaint the gentleman with what, on every possible occasion, he should design in his edifice; and to instruct the practical builder in not only what he ought to do, but how he should execute it, to his own credit, and to the advantage of the owner.” –Isaac Ware, Complete Body of Architecture“The modern concept of architecture as a profession was formed after about 1750 ... [the] two major books of English professional architectur- al instruction of the eighteenth century [were] Ware’ Complete Body of Architecture and Sir William Chambers’s Treatise on Civil Architecture” (Studies in Eighteenth-Century British Art and Aesthetics).Folio, full contemporary calf, elaborately gilt spine in seven pan- els. Engraved frontispiece, title in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved head-piece and 114 plates (many of them fold- ing). Boards lightly rubbed, skillful repairs at hinges and spine ends, clean throughout. An excellent copy.

$8,000

Letters of T.E. Lawrence of Arabia

First edition, first state with "T.E.L." at p. 495 and "Baltic" at p. 182. With 16 photographs and illustrations including 4 maps of which two are folding.Octavo. Original fawn polished buckram in publishers original dust jacket. A very good copy; dust jacket bright and well preserved with light soiling at spine folds. A very attractive copy.

Osservazioni sopra alcuni frammenti di vasi antichi di vetro ornati di figure trovati ne' cimiteri di Roma

FIRST EDITION. “[Buonarroti’s] combination of genuine (or perhaps contrived) religious devotion and true sensitivity to beauty that led him to make his remarkably original appraisal of early Christian art. Stimulated perhaps by what he himself had written nearly years before about the greater veneration likely to have been felt for the crudely carved gods of ancient Egypt than for the much more refined representations which could certainly have been made by later artists, he now carried this line of thought much further... by claiming that the lack of grace and design led to a certain reverential fear and majesty which were well suited to religious art... Buonarroti’s claims for the edifying value of clumsy artefacts produced by unskilled amateurs (claims backed up – to his own satisfaction and to that of his contemporaries – by specific examples carefully reproduced) do open a new chapter in the historian’s understanding of art. From now on it became increasingly accepted that weakness itself could be the best guarantee of purity and devotion.” –Francis Haskell, History and its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the past. Folio. Contemporary vellum; 35 engraved plates, (3 folding, xxxi numbered and 1 unnumbered), woodcut text illustrations. Skillful repair at head of spine extending into front board; moderate wear to binding extremities. Occasional spotting, generally clean throughout. A very attractive copy.

$950

Romanorum Imperatorum Effigies

1592 Edition of Cavalieri's Lives of the Roman Emperors, superbly illustrated with 157 engraved portraits (on 152 leaves). Octavo, bound in contemporary vellum. Engraved title within architectural border, crown at top, full-page engraved coat-of-arms of Cavalieri (browned), 157 portraits (on 152 leaves) by Cavalieri, printer's device on verso of final leaf. Early stamp to lower margin of frontispiece. Occasional light to moderate toning. An attractive copy in a lovely vellum binding.

$4,000

DU CHOUL, GUILLAME