Pontificum romanorum Effigies

Rome: Domenico Basa (Francesco Zanetti), 1580

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

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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

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

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

Self-Portrait

First edition, SIGNED and INSCRIBED by Man Ray: "for Arnold and Gus Newman affectionately Man Ray 1963". With an original line drawing by Man Ray and Newman's notations on front endpaper. An important association copy.

$10,000

La France de Profil

FIRST EDITION. Text by the poet Claude Roy. Superbly illustrated with reproductions of Strand's photographs. Quarto, photo illustrated dust jacket over stiff wrappers; outer glassine dust jacket. A fine copy.

$600

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again)

FIRST EDITION, INITIALED BY WARHOL ON HALF-TITLE. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. Octavo, original cloth, original dust jacket. A fine copy in a very good dust jacket (slight blistering to jacket).

$500

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

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

Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan

FIRST EDITION. Octavo. Publisher's original cloth binding. Steel-engraved portrait frontispiece, plates and maps throughout, some of which are fold-out. A fine set.

$450

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

FIRST EDITIONS. "To this 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, 222). Six volumes. Quarto. Contemporary tan calf rebacked with old red and green lettering-pieces laid down, gilt in compartments. Engraved portrait frontispiece in Vol. I, 2 folding maps in Vol. II, 1 folding map in Vol. III, without half-titles in Vols. II and III, others present. Frontispiece slightly foxed as usual, some offsetting, a few gatherings slightly foxed, a very good set. With portrait frontispiece of Gibbon (in vol. I), 1 folding map of Europe adjacent to Constantinople (in vol. II) 1 folding map of the Eastern Roman Empire and 1 folding map of the Western Roman Empire (in vol. III). The portrait of Gibbon "engraved by Joseph Hall from an original picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds" published by Strahan and Cadell in 1780 and issued with the second volume, has been moved by the binder to the appropriate place, at the beginning of vol. I. That volume is in the second of two variant states, without the cancels X4 and a4.

$27,000

La Photographie n'est pas l'art

FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY MAN RAY. A FINE COPY. "I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence." -Man RayOctavo, stamped blue wrappers, with the black die-cut outer wrapper. A fine copy, signed by Man Ray on the title page. A FINE COPY.

$12,000

CAVALIERI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA DE