Recent acquisition: 15th-century illuminated Bible

An example of manuscript illumination and the very first translation of the Hebrew Bible and glosses into Castilian. 1,046 pages containing the first translation of the Hebrew bible into Castilian by Rabbi Moses Arragel at the behest of Don Luis de Guzmán, Knight of the Order of Calatrava. Executed in Maqueda, Spain from 1422 to 1430. Six are known to exist.

Recent acquisition: The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, and Plants. Together with their Descriptions in English and French. (Mark Catsby, c. 1729)

 


2 volumes, comprising 10 parts and Appendix, bound in one volume, large folio (51 x 37 cm). Contemporary diced russia, covers with gilt border of palmettes and stylized fleur-de-lys, cornerpieces with floral sprays and acorns, spine gilt in compartments with black morocco label, marbled endpapers. Title-pages printed in red and black in English and French, text in parallel columns of English and French, with the list of 'encouragers' (subscribers list with the name 'Iley'), dedication leaf in each volume (vol. I, Queen; vol. II, Princess of Wales), 'An Account of Carolina, and the Bahama Islands' bound following plates and descriptive text of volume II with an etched headpiece by Catesby and historiated woodcut initials and tailpiece, 3-leaf index to volumes I and II bound at end of volume II, single-leaf index to Appendix bound in volume III with the Appendix text and plates, first 20 text pages of volume II with page numbers altered to 1-20 from 120-140, text and plates on paper watermarked with various crowned shields. Tiny marginal tear to text leaf F2, pl. 62 and second vol. title, some mostly light but variable offsetting, very occasional light spotting.

Recent acquisition: Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, by Isaac Newton (published 1687)

 


London: for the Royal Society by Joseph Streater, 1687, 1687. Hardcover. Book Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. AN EXCELLENT COPY OF THE GREATEST WORK IN SCIENCE. Contemporary calf, unrestored. See our website www.19thshop.com for full details. First edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia, “generally described as the greatest work in the history of science” (PMM). This is an excellent, entirely unrestored copy of the first state with the preferred two-line imprint. “Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler had certainly shown the way; but where they described the phenomena they observed, Newton ex- plained the underlying universal laws.

Recent acquisition: Rationale divinorum officiorum (c. 1459)

                   

Folio (41 x 29.6 cm). 156 leaves (of 160, without 1, 14 (2/4), 20 (2/10), 27 (3/7) ), 63 lines, double column, gothic type, 3-line Lombard chapter initials printed in red, rubric headings and occasional paragraph-marks printed in red, rubricated and illuminated; four 8-line initials (68r, 82r, 140r, 154v) illuminated in colours and liquid gold with elaborate floral and vegetal borders by the "Fust Master" of Mainz, chapter initials heightened with purple penwork, unprinted chapter initials supplied by the rubricator mostly in blue, paragraph-marks (when not printed) are rubricated in alternating red and blue; lacking leaves all supplied in facsimile on vellum with appropriate illumination which is flaking on leaf 1, the colophon on leaf 160 heavily deleted with photofacsimile mounted below, first illuminated initial with some flaking, border of initial on leaf 154v partially smudged with brown ink, marginal stains on leaf 2, top edge a bit short just shaving the tops of the illuminated initials. Twentieth-century full russet crushed morocco blindstamped in antique style, by Riviere & Son, edges plain; a bit rubbed.