Search Results: Titles starting with V from Ursus Books

1933. SHAKESPEARE, William. Venus and Adonis. 8vo, bound in gilt-stamped three-quarter red morocco. London: The Nonesuch Press, 1933. The entire poem Venus and Adonis extracted from perhaps the most satisfying edition ever printed. T.E. Lawrence describes his admiration in a glowing letter to the publishers: "We turn over to the Nonesuch Shakespeare. There you have created a most marvellus pleasure. I have handled it ever so many times, and read The Tempest right through. It satisfies. It is final, like the Kelmscott Chaucer or the Ashendene Virgil. And it is a book which charms one to read slowly, an art which is almost gone from us in these times. Every word which Shakespeare uses stands out glowing. A really great edition. The tact and grace of your editor have been surpassing. I think I like the size and shape and binding almost as much as the text. The paper, too, is just right. Altogether a triumph. One of the best things is that it can not be done again. Nobody… Read More

1747. GARCIA BERRUGUILLA, Juan. Verdadera Práctica de las Resoluciones de la Geometría sobre las tres Dimensiones para un perfecto Architecto: con una total Resolución para medir y dividir la Planimetría para los Agrimensores. Title, [30], 135 pp., illustrated with 18 folding engraved plates. 8vo, 225 x 150 mm., bound in contemporary vellum. Madrid: En la Imprenta de Lorenzo Francisco Mojados, 1747. First edition of this rare and richly illustrated manual on applied geometry for the use of architects and land surveyors. It also deals extensively with the instruction of drawing architectural plans and perspective. The book consists of six short treatises, each dealing with a given problem and its solution, all nicely illustrated with 18 engraved plates. OCLC lists just two copies in the U.S. at Columbia and John Carter Brown. Some scattered, minor marginal wear and staining, plate 15 with some repairs, overall a fine, unsophisticated copy.

1768. PHILIPS JACOBSZ, Caspar. Verzaameling van alle de huizen en prachtige gebouwen langs de Keizers en Heere-Grachten der stadt Amsteldam. Letterpress title-page, 2 pages list of householders, plus 24 double-spread engraved plates. Folio, 420 x 280 mm., bound in later tan half calf over marbled boards. Amsterdam: Bernardus Mourik, (1768). First edition of this rare and very important study of Amsterdam architecture, presenting detailed depictions of 1400 facades of homes and buildings along Amsterdam's major residential and business canals (the Heerengracht and Keizergracht). It is significant that the buildings are reproduced precisely as they appeared in the mid-eighteenth century. As the title indicates, this "Collection of all the houses and beautiful buildings along the Amsterdam canals" features etchings of the house fronts in a "mirrored" fashion. The buildings on the right bank of the "gracht" appear directly across from their respective building on… Read More

1985. CELMINS, Vija. The View. Poems by Czeslaw Milosz. Unpaginated. Illustrated with four mezzotints by Celmins. Tall 4to., 377 x 280 mm, bound in original publisher's black morocco spine, grey paper over boards in matching slipcase. Uncut. New York: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1985. Considered to be one of the most important artist's books published by the Whitney Library Fellows. Celmins, American painter, sculptor, object-maker and draughtsman of Latvian birth, provided four mezzotints to accompany Milosz's poems in this beautifully printed book. Milosz's melodic words are a perfect accompaniment to the tranquil work of Celmins; the combination serves to create an ethereal symphony of words and image. Edition limited to 120 copies. Signed on the colophon by Milosz and Celmins. A fine copy.

1939. MORGAGNI, Manlio. Viva il Duce! 23 Marzo 1919. 226 ff., photographically illustrated throughout. Folio, 380 x 315 mm., bound in publisher's boards, in a new cloth folding box. Milano: Alfieri & Lacroix, 1939. This splendid Fascist photobook is a massive hagiography of Mussolini, redeemed by its imaginative book design, which is in complete contrast to the banality of its subject. Much too heavy for its fragile binding, most copies were either destroyed or have fallen apart. There is some almost inevitable wear to the fragile binding. A rare book with OCLC lists only copies at the NYPL and Navy Dept. in the U.S. Grillo, Il Libro Fotografico Italiano 1931-1941. pp.207-208/

1895. DE VILLE D'AVRAY, A. Voyage dans la Lune avant 1900. [2], 50 ff., all colour lithographs. Oblong folio, 270 x 215 mm., bound in original publisher's red cloth, upper cover stamped in gilt. Paris: Librairie Furne, Jouvet & Cie., Editeurs, [ca. 1890s]. Only edition of this extraordinary children's book, executed entirely in colour lithography by Hérold & Cie., 131 Blvd. St. Michel, Paris, after original designs by the author, about whom nothing is known. In the 'Préface' he states that he composed the work for his children "sheet by sheet during the long evenings of winter." This work is evidently of the greatest rarity and is not listed in any bibliography or library catalogue consulted by us. There are several interesting parallels between the present work and the famous film of the same name by Georges Méliès (1902), a fourteen-minute masterpiece based on Jules Verne's De la Terre a la lune and Autour de la lune.… Read More

1858. MAYNARD, Felix. Voyage et Aventures au Chili. [4], 308 pp. Paris: Libraire Nouvelle, 1858. WITH: -----. De Delhi à Cawnpore: Journal d'une Dame Anglaise: Pages de l'Insurrection Hindoue. [4], 301 pp. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1859. -----. Un Drame dans les Mers Boréales: Souvenirs du Kamtschatka. [4], 307 pp. 18mo., 178 x 110 mm, uniformly bound in contemporary French beige quarter-morocco, marbled paper boards, black spine labels, comb-marbled edges. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères, 1859. First Editions. Scarce collection of nineteenth-century nautical expeditions through Russian and South American waters (the "Delhi" voyage is in fact a fictional account). Maynard (1813-1858) was the surgeon of a French whaling ship and in this capacity he circled the globe, recalling his adventures and observations clearly and soberly. Several of his works were edited by his friend Alexandre Dumas (Père), who contributed a… Read More

1838. GRANDVILLE, J.J. Voyages de Gulliver dans des Contrées Lointaines par Swift. Two volumes. [4], LXIX (i.e. LIX), [1], 279; [4], 319 pp. With a frontispiece of the gigantic Gulliver above an arch, 6 section-titles, and numerous wood-engraved vignettes by Grandville throughout. 8vo., 210 x 125 mm, uniformly bound in contemporary red calf with gilt spine, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. Paris: H. Fournier Ainé, Furne et Cie, 1838. First Edition with Grandville's illustrations, containing 450 original wood-engraved vignettes which comprise some of his best work. "Swift's text, with its pattern of logical development from impossible premises, fitted Grandville's mind better than any other to which he applied himself... Each of Gulliver's four voyages had its own kind of appeal for the artist, whose compositions remain at a high level throughout" (Ray pp. 271-2). Indeed, Beraldi claimed that the Voyages de Gulliver became the definitive visual rendering… Read More

1856. GRANDVILLE, J.J. Voyages de Gulliver dans des Contrées Lointaines par Swift. Four parts in one. 448 pp., with a frontispiece of the gigantic Gulliver above an arch, 6 section-titles, and numerous wood-engraved vignettes by Grandville throughout. 8vo, 212 x 125 mm., in the publisher's polychrome binding. Paris: Garnier Freres, 1856 $ 2500.00 A later issue but preserved in the publisher's polychrome binding and with the interior bright and free from foxing. With 450 original wood-engraved vignettes by Grandville, which comprise some of his best work. "Swift's text, with its pattern of logical development from impossible premises, fitted Grandville's mind better than any other to which he applied himself" (Ray pp. 271-2). Indeed, Beraldi claimed that the Voyages de Gulliver became the definitive visual rendering of Swift for French readers and remains one of Grandville's best works. Ray, Art of the French Illustrated Book, 192. Beraldi VII, 206. Brunet… Read More

1957. BASKIN, Leonard. Voyages Six Poems. By Hart Crane. With wood engravings by Leonard Baskin. Oblong 4to., bound in blue paper wrappers, housed in a folding slipcase with white paper title label. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1957. One of an edition limited to 975 copies designed, illustrated and printed by Leonard Baskin at the Gehenna Press, with six original boxwood engravings and one cherry woodcut on hand-made papers. Baskin's mystical woodcuts are well suited for Crane's spiritual acuity. A fine copy with the folder in good condition, which is virtually never the case. The Artist and the Book, No. 13.