  • <b>Shapero Rare Books:</b> Latest catalogue - The Russian Turmoil 1917-45: An Émigré perspective
    <b>Shapero Rare Books:</b> S. Anichkova, Baroness Taube, [The Enigma of Lenin]. Prague, c. 1934.
    <b>Shapero Rare Books:</b> V. Purishkevich [The Diary of State Duma Member Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich]. Riga, 1924.
    <b>Shapero Rare Books:</b> O. Kugusheva [Wolf Pack]. Berlin, 1940.
    <b>Shapero Rare Books:</b> B.M. Kuznetsov [To Please Stalin / 1945-1946]. Canada, 1968.
  • <b>Christie's London June 9th: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts</b>
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> CASSATT, Mary (1844-1926). Document signed three times. Est. £3,000-5,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> LENNON, John and Yoko ONO. Document signed ('John Lennon'; 'Yoko Ono'). Est. £4,000-6,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b><br>BOCHIUS, Joannes (1555-1609). Book describes in great detail ... visiting Archduke Albert of Austria and wife. Est. £3,000-5,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9th: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts</b>
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> CAVENDISH, William, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1592-1676). <i>A General System of Horsemanship in all its Branches.</i> Est. £3,500-4,500.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> FERNÁN GONZÁLEZ,<i>Conde Fernan Gonzalez. Cronica del noble cavallero el conde Fernan Gonçalez.</i> Est. £5,000-£8,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b><br>SEWELL, Anna (1820-1878). <i>Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions. The Autobiography of a Horse.</i><br>Est. £4,000-£6,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9th: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts</b>
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> WISDEN, John. <i>Cricketers' Almanack for 1898.</i> Est. £3,000-5,000.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b> IMPERATO, Ferrante (1550-1625). Historia Naturale. Venice: Combi & La Noù. Est. £2,500-3,500.
    <b>Christie's London June 9:</b><br>PEIGNOT, Etienne-Gabriel (1767-1849). Dictionaire raisonné de bibliologie. Paris: vols I-II = Villier, 1802. Est. £8,000-£12,000.
  • <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Selection of Manuscripts
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Selection of Miniatures
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Selection of Early Printed Books
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Book of Hours, illuminated by the Jason Master, Haarlem, c. 1475-80
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Book of Hours, illuminated by the Boucicaut Master, Paris, c. 1415
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Book of Hours, illuminated by the Rohan Master, probably Troyes, c. 1415-20
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico, manuscript on vellum, Milan, c. 1450-75
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Biblia Latina, Paris, 1476-77, first edition of the Vulgate printed in France
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Ludolph of Saxony, Vie du Christ, illuminated by the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse, 1506-08
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b><br>King David, miniature on vellum, Bologna, c. 1470
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Christ calling St. Peter, miniature on vellum, by Pellegrino di Mariano Rossini, Siena, 1471
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Presentation in Temple, miniature on vellum, Nuremberg, c. 1490-1500
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Bible, illuminated in the <i>primo stile</i>, Bologna, c. 1250-70
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Valturio, De re militari, Verona 1483, first edition in Italian
    <b>Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books: </b> Celestial vision at Constantinople, single-leaf woodcut, Nuremberg,<br>c. 1490-91
  • <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Catalogue 160: Magnificent Books, Manuscripts, & Photographs
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Shakespeare's First Folio (1623)
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Charles Darwin family photograph album
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Spectacular album of mammoth photos of the American West by Watkins & others
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Washington family copy of The Federalist (1788)
    <b>19th Century Shop.</b> Underground Railroad runaway broadside (1857)

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2014 Issue

Antiquarian Books, Leaves, and Manuscripts from Phillip J. Pirages

00ea7770-1d91-4ab0-a7bf-d2f3e782753a

Antiquarian works from Phillip J. Pirages.

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts has issued Catalogue 65: Vellum Illuminated Manuscript Material, Printed Books from 1505-1799 (and Fine Modern Facsimiles, Early Documents, and Single Printed Leaves). Offered is very early material, printed items ranging mostly from the dawn of printing through the 18th century, and manuscript items sometimes preceding the invention of printing by several centuries. “Antiquarian” is the watchword here. The other common thread is that these items overwhelmingly come from England and continental Europe, as one might expect of early works. That may be a bit surprising for a bookseller located in McMinnville, Oregon, but at some time or other this material made the long journey to the New World.

 

Pirages' catalogues are among the best in the business. The descriptions are thorough and illustrated. There are 571 items, but Pirages has supplied 400 pages to describe them all. Leaving things to your imagination has its place, but not when you are making a purchase. “Clarity” is another watchword for Pirages' catalogues. Here are a few sample items from this latest collection.

 

We will start with one of the earliest pieces, an illuminated manuscript leaf almost a millennium old. This comes from the text in Latin for a Good Friday mass, created in Germany during the late 11th century. It survived by having been used in the binding of a later book. The narrative taken from Matthew has been marked with four letters for different parts, indicating it was recited by four different speakers. Pirages notes this is some of the oldest evidence of liturgical drama. It displays the handwork of a very skilled scribe, though Pirages notes that a few faded lines on the recto were later strengthened by the writing of a less skillful hand. Item 2. Priced at $4,500.

 

Item 199 is a complete vellum manuscript created right around the time Gutenberg was inventing his press - circa 1450. It contains three works written by St. Jerome during the fourth century. Jerome was a fairly orthodox believer who didn't mince words in defending his beliefs. The first work in this trilogy is the Life of Paul the Hermit (Paul of Thebes) who led an ascetic existence in the desert, spending almost a century in a far off cave alone. Jerome approved of this lifestyle. The second is Dialogues Against Pelagius, who denied the concept of original sin. This did not meet with Jerome's views. Pirages notes that Jerome was not entirely logical in his arguments, alluding to Pelagius' corpulence and success with women. The third piece is another condemnation of an opponent who opposed reconciliation with those who had formerly defined the Son as separate from the Father (but had renounced those beliefs). Pirages notes the skilled, concise writing and striking initials in this manuscript. $30,000.

 

Inoculation was a controversial subject in the 18th century. Aside from the fact that injecting people with a disease does not, on its face, sound like a great idea, the outcome was not always the best. Item 341 is An Inquiry into the Merits of a Method of Inoculating the Small-Pox, which is Now Practiced in Several Counties of England, published in 1766. The author was Sir George Baker, who supported the practice. His support was significant as he carried the prestige of being a physician to the royal family. However, at the time, the inoculation used a small amount of material from the diseased patient. The hope was it would only cause a mild case of the disease while building up the recipient's immunity. Unfortunately, sometimes the case was not so mild and the patient died from the “cure.” Still, it improved their odds. It would not be until the later days of the century that the use of harmless cowpox in the injection would provide a safe means of inoculation against smallpox. $950.

 

Item 533 is a rare surviving copy of an early attack on the witch-hunting frenzy of the 16th and 17th centuries: The Discoverie of Witchcraft, wherein the Lewde Dealing of Witches and Witchmongers is Notablie Detected... by Reginald Scot. Published in 1584, people in Salem, Massachusetts, still managed to ignore the message over a century later. Scot divided those accused of witchcraft into four categories, for which he had explanations as to why the accusations were false. There were poor women generally despised by their neighbors, those who were mentally disturbed and may have even believed they possessed supernatural powers, those who used tricks to fool people, and genuinely bad people who sought to harm others, but that did not make them witches. Claiming witchcraft was false was actually heresy in its day, and King James later ordered Scot's book burned, explaining its rarity. The King had written about demonology himself. $80,000.

Rare Book Monthly


Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/1563?page=1
www.rarebookhub.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2015-22
73589
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:YOYVLT2SQY4MSJ7VMK5JIGQEEPZ5EMXI
<urn:uuid:082eb869-84ee-4f3d-ac5f-84515ffa48e4>
2015-05-22T10:01:05Z
107.22.15.86
sha1:NO44IHMCAQCV2RVAS2IM5VW2UNDMZFDO
<urn:uuid:df1fb322-b2a6-4880-83e1-fca85d470ed0>
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/1563?page=1
response
<urn:uuid:c7bed785-ef08-48cd-8d67-36c7f98266f7>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-180-206-219.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-22
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf