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.

Recent acquisition: Atlas of England and Wales (c. 1579)

Folio (17 x 12 inches). Engraved allegorical frontispiece showing Queen Elizabeth as patroness of Astronomy and Geography attributed to Remy Hogenberg (laid-in), full-sheet engraved plate with 84 escutcheons facing a table of towns, 35 full-sheet engraved maps (one folding) after Saxton by Hogenberg, Lenaert Terwoort, Cornelis de Hooghe, Augustine Ryther, Francis Scatter, and Nicholas Reynolds, letterpress index of maps, the maps, frontispiece, and tables ALL IN FINE CONTEMPORARY HAND COLOR AND LAVISHLY HEIGHTENED WITH GILT AND ARGENT, ALL POSSIBLY BY MARCUS GHERAERTS (TRUUSJE GOEDINGS). FINE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH CALF GILT BINDING BY JEHAN DE PLANCHE in "Lyonnese" style (i.e. Jehan de Planche II, possibly working in London from about 1567-72 and later).

Recent acquisition: Historia Naturale. by Gaius Plinius Secundus (Latin translation by Cristoforo Landino, c. 1476)

 

Translated from Latin into Italian by Cristoforo Landino. [413] leaves, lacking the first & last blanks. 50 lines, spaces for initials with guide letters. Handsome Roman & Greek types. Illuminated by a contemporary Italian artist (see below). Two vols. Large folio (415 x 275 mm.), 19th-century French dark blue straight-grained morocco, gold-tooled to a sober neo-classical design, sides panelled with triple gold fillets enclosing diaper and palmette rolls in blind, an inner panel of a single gold fillet framing gilt cornerpiece tools in gold and a different blind palmette roll, spines divided into six blind- & gold-tooled compartments, the second and sixth compartments lettered in gold, board edges gilt, turn-ins decorated with blind roll & gilt fillets, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, paper outer flyleaves, vellum inner flyleaves, by René Simier, with his gilt stamp "Simier R[elieur]. du Roi" in lower compartment of spine of Vol. I (a few nicks and scratches to covers, trifling wear at corners and extremities of spines).