Forum Rare Books

Our book of the day is a wonderful treasure trove of 16th- and 17th-century European knowledge of the world: the most extensive edition of Sebastian Münster's monumental "Cosmographia" (Basel, 1628), with almost 1600 illustrations, maps and views.

#rarebooks #bookhistory #worldhistory

Our #bookoftheday is a beautifully hand-colored copy, with liberal use of gold, of 1st edition (1765) of verse rendition by Willem Sels of the story of King Solomon. Splendidly bound by so-called "Three Acorn Bindery" in Amsterdam. All 12 plates beautifully drawn and engraved by Reinier Vinkeles.

Thank you #Melbourne!

#MelbourneRareBookFair

And here's our next highlight for the Melbourne Rare Book Fair, which opens tomorrow! Benito Arias Montano's "Humanae salutis monumenta" (1571) in a splendid contemporary fanfare binding. It was once owned famous book collectors Edouard Rahir, Edmée Maus, and Michel Wittock.

#rarebooks #bookbinding

Here's another highlight from our catalogue for the Melbourne Rare Book Fair: a beautiful copy of an unusual work on the Anne's of the House of #Habsburg, with the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Anne of Austria (1601-1666), on both boards. The catalogue can be found on our website.

#armorialbinding

It's a great pleasure to present our catalogue for the Melbourne Rare Book Fair. 77 #rarebooks, atlases, manuscripts, prints & photographs, incl. the Kenneth E. Hill copy of the #firstedition of the official account of the voyages of the Beagle, a milestone in the history of science.

#CharlesDarwin

From our new short list on #France: attractive copy of very rare print series concerning notorious case of Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Girard and Catherine Cadière, which inspired the 1748 novel Thérèse philosophe: an icon of 18th-century #libertinism. Find out more on our website.

#rarebooks #eroticart

This week's short list will be on #France. It includes unrecorded 1649 edition of rare devotional work in fine Parisian fanfare binding, most likely from the workshop of the publisher, Pierre Rocolet, that worked for famous collectors as Marie de' Medici & Mazarin.

#rarebooks #bookbinding #devotion

Coming up: the Melbourne Rare Book Fair (July 30-Aug 1)! We are very much looking forward to traveling to the country that was once known as New Holland. Sadly, that changed when Captain Matthew Flinders came along. Check our website for this Dutch edition of his famous circumnavigation.

#Australia

Unlike the brother Wright and Montgolfier, father and son Sanson have not become household names in #aviation history. Nevertheless, their design for a fish-shaped #dirigible is a very interesting chapter in men's dream to fly. Find out more about this very rare brochure on our website.

#rarebooks

This week's short list will be on #Religion and includes this beautiful #printseries by Romeyn de Hooghe presenting a "miror of good death". It was once part of the library of Armand-Jean de Vignerot du Plessis, 2nd Duc de Richelieu, and has his coat of arms on the binding. More on website.

On this sad day in 1810, the #Netherlands were annexed by #Napoleon, on whom we have several interesting items you might not have expected to find in our online inventory, as they are not books: a bronze portrait bust, jigsaw puzzles, and picture post cards. Check our website for full descriptions.

Here's a random classic from our inventory: two popular medical works by the famous city physician of Dordrecht Johan van Beverwijck bound together, one in praise of #medicine (1644), the other a practical manual on #surgery (1645). Find out more on our website.

#rarebooks #bookcollecting

Here's a highlight from our upcoming short list on Africa: Peter Kolb's "Naaukeurige en uitvoerige beschryving van de Kaap de Goede Hoop" (Amsterdam, 1727). This is the best edition of one of the most important works of all time on South Africa & most extensive early account of Cape of Good Hope.

Full description on our website:
www.forumrarebooks.com/item/buffon_georges_louis_leclerc__histoire_naturelle_g_eacute_n_eacute_rale_et_particuli_eacute_re.html

Today's newsletter presents 12 interesting #rarebooks on Earth Sciences, incl. complete supplements to Buffon's famous "Histoire naturelle", that not only treats #geology and #mineralogy, but also many other subjects within Natural History. With many illustrations of all kinds of animals.

Our book of the day is Pierre Belon's "L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux" (Paris, 1555), first and only early edition of this extremely important work, one of the first ornithological compendiums to be based, at least in part, on field observations.

#rarebooks #earlyprinting #bookbinding

Our book of the day is "Cartas que los Padres y Hermanos de la Compañia de Iesus, que andan en los Reynos de Iapon ..." (1575), a first Spanish edition of 87 Portuguese letters by Jesuit missionaries in Japan. With interesting woodcut Chinese and Japanese characters.

#rarebooks #Japonica

Today's #newsletter presents 12 #Emblem & Fable Books, incl. this wonderful satirical work by Johann Flitner, an adaptation in Latin of Thomas Murner's great 16th-century German satire Schelmen Zunft, focusing on those who use words to deceive & seduce: jurists, councilors, clerics, debtors, etc.

Check our website for more info on this ca. 1492 #incunable with sermons by Roberto Caracciolo.

Not the best restoration job we have ever seen, but an interesting #bookbinding nonetheless. With medieval manuscript used as pastedown & blind-tooled initials on front. Once part of the Furstenberg library, as well as of the Franciscan monastery Villingen. (More below).

#rarebooks

We're very much looking forward to the Melbourne Rare Book Fair (July 31-August 2)! A highlights in our stand will be this splendid copy of #firstedition of the original Greek text of the works of Herodotus, published and edited by Aldus Manutius at Venice, from library of the Dukes of #Arenberg.

Like everyone else we never tire of seeing #Cats on social media, especially when their complete works are bound in richly gold-tooled morocco by the "star bindery" from The Hague and contain hundreds of beautiful illustrations by some of the best Dutch engravers of their time.

#bookbinding

Our #bookoftheday is large paper copy of 2nd edition ofItalian translation by Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) of one of the greatest literary classics in world history: Homer's Illiad. Our copy comes in beautiful armorial binding (possibly of the family Paule, from the Provence).

#rarebooks #bookbinding

Our book of the day is this early 16th-century superb Humanist "Sammelband" with the collected works of three classical authors (Horace, Persius, and Juvenalis), in a fine contemporary Strasbourg binding. More info on our website.

#rarebooks #bookbinding #incunable #earlyprinting

In today's #newsletter we present 12 rare books, manuscripts & watercolors concerning #India, including these beautifully painted miniature paintings on paper, inserted in an Urdu work about the Kashmir region. Find out more on our website.

Our book of the day is the rare fourth edition, in the original Latin, of an important and influential pedagogical work by Maffeo Vegio (1406/07-1458), regarded by many as the finest Latin poet of the fifteenth-century. Our copy comes in an interesting imitation 'Medieval' binding.

#rarebooks

Depicted here #firstedition (Venice, Paulus Manutius, 1554) of his important and influential commentaries of the poems of the passionate Roman poet Catullus (84-ca. 54 BCE), often given the collective title #Carmina. Find out more on our website.

#rarebooks #AldinePress

Although he was burned in effigy in Toulouse in 1554 after being accused of being a Huguenot and a 'sodomite', brilliant French scholar and humanist Marc-Antoine Muret would live and work for another thirty years. He died #onthisday in 1585.

Today's highlight from our website is this collection of three very rare early sixteenth-century editions of humanist works (by Andrea Domenico Fiocco, Lucian and Petrus Mosellanus) in a contemporary panel-stamped binding. More info on our website.

#rarebooks #bookbinding