Search Results: Authors starting with R from Liber Antiquus

Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1545. FIRST ITALIAN EDITION (1st ed., in Latin, 1525). Hardcover. Fine. Bound in modern stiff vellum. Contents with occ. light blemishes. With a woodcut compass on folio 74; woodcut printer's device on title and final leaf. Embossed bookplate, "Montisalti" on front pastedown. An important account of the 1522 siege of Rhodes, a campaign led by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I "the Magnificent". The Christian Knights of St. John of Jerusalem ultimately surrendered, after enduring months of punishing assault, agreeing to abandon their island stronghold and relocate, ultimately, to Malta. Suleiman would live to regret his decision to allow the Knights to leave unmolested. This is the first Italian edition, translated by Francesco Sansovino, of "De bello Rhodio" by Jacob Fonteyn (v. 1450-1528) of Bruges. With additional texts not found in the first edition. Fonteyn was an eyewitness and participant of the siege. His text aimed primarily to praise the bravery and tenacity of the… Read More

Augsburg: Christoph. Mangius, 1615. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. A fine copy bound in strictly contemporary limp vellum, soiled, lacking ties. The text is in truly excellent condition with a little fraying to the outer, blank margin of the engraved title, which shows Matteo Ricci and Blessed Francis Xavier in an architectural framework, flanking Ricci's map of China. The folding plan, showing the church where Ricci's tomb is located, is also present and in excellent condition. Provenance: With the collector's stamp (Lugt 3285) of the Wroclaw architect Albrecht of Sebisch (1610-1688) in the blank margin of the title page. Stamp "Vrhedigersch. Stadtbibliothek zu Breslau" (Wroclaw) on the verso. The Jesuits were convinced that they had to understand China in order to win converts. Accordingly, they adopted Chinese names, dress, and language, traveled extensively, and immersed themselves in Chinese language, philosophy, art, and literature. Ricci was the first Western scholar to master Chinese, and… Read More

Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1550. Hardcover. Fine. First state. With Lafreri's excudit: "Ant. LafrerI FormIs Romae MDL" at lower right. Watermark "Duck in a Circle"(cf. Woodward 79-80). A fine impression, rich in tone, with light marginal foxing and light soiling, particularly in the lower right corner, and some trivial surface soiling to the image. An iconic image of the statue known as Pasquino, by far the most famous of Rome's 'statue parlanti' (talking statues) and the eponymous originator of the pasquinade genre. The statue was discovered in 1501 in the Parione district of Rome. Cardinal Oliviero Carafa, "the embodiment of humanist ideals, centering on the revival of antiquity"(Reynolds), erected the statue next to his palace near Piazza Navona, on the site of today's Palazzo Braschi, where it stands to this day. As early as 1501, satirical poems in Latin and Italian, variously celebrating or criticizing the pope, clergy, and nobility, or lampooning private individuals, were affixed to the statue.… Read More

Rome: Nicolaes van Aelst, ca, 1589. FIRST STATE (of 1). Marigliani (Lo splendore di Roma, II.49) gives the date "ca. 1589". The watermark (apparently a shield with an indiscernible blazon) is obscured by the image. Hardcover. Fine. A fine copy, rich in tone, with broad margins (including partial deckled edges), with a little light marginal soiling and a tiny hole in the blank margin. Very lightly creased at the center, with an original paper guard on the verso. The numeral "13" in early manuscript at lower right, indicating the print's former position in a bound volume. An attractive engraving of one of the most famous and most widely recognized monuments of ancient Rome, the pyramidal tomb of Gaius Cestius. The tomb, constructed sometime between 18 and 12 B.C.E., is the only sepulchral monument of its type still extant in Rome. The Flemish émigré printer Nicolaes van Aelst arrived in Rome from his native Brussels sometime in the mid-1580s. He worked in Rome as a publisher until his death in… Read More

Rome:: A spese di Niccola Roisecco, 1765. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in three uniform bindings of contemporary patterned paste-paper over cartoncino boards. wear to extremities and spines. Internally this is as close to an immaculate set as I have seen, with some deckled edges preserved. The text is bright and clean throughout. The folding engravings are crisp.The three volumes are illustrated with an engraved frontispiece (in Vol. I), numerous engraved illustrations in the text, a folding table, and 39 folding engraved illustrations of architectural monuments and sculpture. This set is complete with all engravings called for by Rossetti. Sets such as this, with all three volumes complete and with all plates, bound in their original bindings, are rare on the market. Excellent. A beautiful three-volume set, describing and illustrating the ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque monuments and buildings of Rome. This publication marks the culmination of a long series of developments in illustrated guides… Read More

Prague: Aegidius Sadeler, 1606. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. A very fine, broad-margined copy with very rich and clear impressions of the plates. Occ. marginal soiling, a few pin-prick wormholes in the margins of a few leaves. Bound in contemporary morocco, richly tooled in gold. With an engraved allegorical title with the main title incised within a wolf's hide hung on a monument; an engraved dedication to Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels (numbered'1'), with the text incised on a stone tablet between flanking obelisks and with two putti supporting the dedicatee's arms; and 49 full-paged engraved plates (ca. 170 x 270 mm), all numbered and signed 'Marco Sadeler excudit', with descriptive captions in Italian. This is the first edition. Thirty-six of these images were copied by Aegidius Sadeler from Etienne Du Pérac's " Vestigi dell'Antichità di Roma" (Rome 1575). For the other images, Sadeler drew on drawings by Jan Breughel the elder and Pieter Stevens. Marco Sadeler, whose name appears on the… Read More

Rome: Giovanni Scudellari, 1818. SECOND EDITION, EXPANDED, WITH NINE NEW PLATES NOT IN THE FIRST EDITION of 1817. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in late 19th c. or early 20th c. blue marbled paper over boards (spine backed in later blue cloth), wear to extremities, corners bumped. A fine copy with broad margins and only minor blemishes: title and the first few plates lightly foxed; the final three foxed and lightly spotted. The title is lightly soiled and foxed, with a small light stain in lower margin, and a light crease in the inner margin. Fine, dark impressions of the plates. These are among the earliest etchings of Roman monuments created by Luigi Rossini, "the most important graphic illustrator of Rome in the nineteenth century"(Millard) and the last of the great artists to produce large-scale etched views (vedute), plans, and speculative reconstructions of Rome's ancient remains. The first edition of 1817 had only forty-one views, the first of which, an architectural capriccio, served as the title… Read More

Rome: presso l'autore, 1819-, 1823. FIRST EDITION, first issue. Hardcover. Fine. A fine, complete set with all 101 engraved plates. Bound in 19th c. diced calf in two volumes (corners bumped, light wear to hinges and head and foot of spines). The boards are framed by multiple gold rules with additional blind-ruling and roll-tooling. Attractive floral roll-tooling to turn-ins. Spine with gold-ruled compartments, diced in blind, with title, author, date and volume numbers tooled in gold. Contents in fine condition, the plates on sturdy guards, with two added manuscript title pages (19th c.) in pen and wash. First plate in Vol. I foxed, occ. marginal foxing and light soiling, rarely affecting the images. Tiny spots of red wax to fold of one plate. These magnificently large and stunning views of the Eternal City, created by the Ravenna architect Luigi Rossini, are by far the most spectacular of those issued in the nineteenth century. The subjects include temples, public baths, basilicas and other… Read More

London: printed for John Starkey, 1669. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION (A French-language version appeared at Amsterdam in the same year.). Hardcover. Fine. Bound in contemporary polished calf, rebacked preserving original spine, corners bumped, light wear. Complete with the two engraved portraits of Charles Howard, First Earl of Carlisle (1628-1685) and Tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovich (1629-1676), just shaved at fore-edge. Title a little dusty, clean tear to margin of Z1 (not entering the text). Fine. First edition of this eyewitness account of the official English embassy to Russia, written by Guy Miege, under-secretary to the English ambassador Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle. The book provides a fascinating window on the intricacies of Russian diplomatic protocols, ceremonial customs, and the hospitality bestowed upon high-ranking foreign dignitaries at the Russian court. "Carlisle's main responsibilities were to reciprocate the honor that Tzar Aleksey Mikhaylovich had shown to King Charles II in sending… Read More