{"title":"Travel \u0026 Geography","description":"\u003cp\u003eNavigation, topography, exploration, and global geography. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"frois-luis","title":"FROIS, Luis","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of these two important and detailed letters by Frois, the first concerning the state of the Christian leaders and Jesuit missions in Japan in 1595 and the second dealing with the death of Hidetsugu the nephew and retainer of Hideyoshi (referred to in this letter by his common name Taicosama). The Portuguese Jesuit Frois was one of the leading members of the Jesuit mission in Japan and his reports are highly esteemed for their attention to detail and concrete data. By the 1590 s the predominately Jesuit Christian mission in Japan had made considerable progress, with nearly three hundred thousand converts. Frois worked for some years under the Provincial of India in charge of reporting on East Asia to the church in Europe, and in 1563, at the age 31, he arrived in Japan, at Nagasaki. In 1565 he journeyed to Kyoto, but with the downfall of his protector, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, he was forced to take refuge in Sakai. In 1569 he met Nobunaga, (the first of the great Japanese Generals who nearly unified Japan under his leadership) and received permission to proselytize. He spent the ensuing years in missionary work while writing The History of Portuguese Territories in East India. In his capacity as interpreter he travelled widely in Japan, was party to much inside information on affairs of State and witnessed many of the events that shaped Japan for some 250 years. The first letter is a general review of the year recounting events of especial importance with respect to the Society, dealing with particular places and Jesuit residences, providing detailed accounts of their political, social and religious circumstances. The second work is an extraordinary account of the death of Hidetsugu who was nominally the regent of Japan or Kanpaku, though all power effectively resided with his uncle Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi had made Hidetsugu, his only relative, his heir, though with the birth of Hideyoshi s son in 1593 to his mistress, this situation became untenable. Finally, in 1595, Hidetsugu was accused of plotting a coup and ordered to commit suicide, his allies were banished and his children and mistresses executed, with the exception of his one month old daughter. Frois  account is particularly detailed and knowledgeable giving much detail on the complex political background to the events and paints a picture of Hideyoshi as a cruel and vindictive leader. A good copy of these important letters from a most important period in Japanese history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FROIS, Luis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067014991,"sku":"L1081","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_1971.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"magini-giovanni-antonio","title":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome, very well margined copy of the second edition of the premier early Italian atlas, which dominated Italian cartography for at least the next half century. Most of the main C17 cartographers, including the Dutch compiler-editors, followed, copied, or incorporated Magini's regional maps, even Ortelius (with whom Magini corresponded) as well as Brahe and Kepler's and Blaeu used some of them. Magini (1555-1617) Paduan astronomer, astrologer, cartographer and mathematician studied at Bologna and famously was appointed to the chair of Mathematics there in preference to Galileo. His chef d'oeuvre however was the present atlas, designed to include a detailed map of every region of Italy with exact nomenclature and historical notes. Began in 1594 it soon proved ruinously expensive and Magini assumed the posts of astrologer to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and tutor to his sons to pay for it. The Duke Ferdinando, to whom the atlas is dedicated, provided assistance for the project and allowed for maps of the various Italian states to be brought to Mantua, the governing authorities of Messina and Genoa also financially helped. Magini was not an engraver and had considerable problems from the mid-1590s onwards in keeping the service of those, such as the Dutch Arnold brothers, who were. Eventually he engaged the Englishman Benjamin Wright who completed the series in between his habitual bouts of drunkeness. The process took so long that Magini did not live to see its completion and the atlas was eventually published by his son Fabio, after a good deal of further revision. The result, according to Almagia (cit. inf.) eliminated numerous earlier errors in longitude and latitude, accurately indicated political boundaries and physical features and added numerous topographical names.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067637583,"sku":"L1211","price":22000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1211-3.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"porcacchi-thomaso","title":"PORCACCHI, Thomaso","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of the most celebrated book of islands, by the Italian scholar Thomaso Porcacchi, beautifully illustrated with the delicate engraved maps and plans, one for each place, of Girolamo Porro, who also produced the maps for Ruscelli's translation of Ptolemy's Geographia in 1574. The first 15 illustrations begin with Venice and her surrounds, then pass from east to west through the Mediterranean, from Corfu, Crete and Cyprus via Rhodes, Sicily and Malta, to Corsica, Elba and the Balearics. The next six are from Northern Europe, the British Isles, Scotland, Ireland, the Frisian islands, Iceland and Gotland. Across the Atlantic are Hispanola, (with a lengthy account of the arrival of Columbus), Cuba and St Lawrence, the islands ending with Ceylon and the Moluccas. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The last four illustrations comprise a remarkably important and detailed map of North America, a smaller version of Forlani's, and the first depicting that landmass as a single continental entity; it is also the first printing of the first atlas map of North America, followed by a detailed plan of Mexico city at the time of the Spanish conquest. The last two are very attractive and complete world maps, the second specifically designed for the use of navigators. Each of the illustrations is accompanied by a few pages of topographical and geographical description of the subject matter, including principal places, physical features, climate, customs and produce. The Isole is interesting both as a fine example of the most elegant Italian cartography but also as one of the most sophisticated responses to the increasing demand for reliable information about far away places. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Albert Parre√±o was an alumnus of Princeton and a well-known collector of travel books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PORCACCHI, Thomaso","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067998031,"sku":"L993","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00031.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"caviceo-jacomo","title":"CAVICEO, Jacomo","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare, beautifully printed and illustrated popular edition of Francois Dassi s French translation of Caviceo s  Libro del Peregrino , first published in the author s native Parma in 1508, and remarkably popular, both in Italy and France, where it went through more than twenty editions during the following fifty years, though it has not been reprinted in its entirety since 1559, perhaps due to its robust attitude to physical love. Caviceo introduces his romance with the appearance of Boccaccio s shade who praises the book s dedicatee, Lucrezia Borgia; unsurprisingly the Peregino is full of echoes of Boccaccio s writings, and is also imbued with the atmosphere of the Ferrarese court of Ercole I d Este which Caviceo knew well. He appears also to have used Colonna s Hyperotomachia as a model, as the Peregrino similarly contains a multiplicity of digressions on a diverse range of subjects in a Latinate prose full of classical allusions. As the title suggests much of the romance is concerned with travel, based on the author s own experiences, including voyages to the middle east, Mount Sinai and Cyprus. These adventures often serve as a pretext for a display of humanist erudition, courtly speeches, with disquisitions on natural philosophy and neo-platonic theories of love. A good deal of the work is comic, sometimes unsubtle, as in the episode when Peregrino steals, via a sewer, into what he believes is his ladies chamber only to discover, at a critical moment, that he entered a neighboring house and is in the wrong bed. All these disparate elements are woven into the story of Peregrino, an ardent lover, who after many trials on behalf of his love Ginevra, eventually wins her hand, only to witness her death shortly after the birth of her first child. The story is innovative firstly in its narrative technique, the entire story is told by the hero s shade and is in the first person, (much of the book is composed of dialogue) and secondly in its inclusion of a host of famous contemporaries in his fictional narrative, some recently dead, but most still living at publication. It is therefore quite surprising that the work was so popular in France where few of this gallery of local figures would have been known to its readers. The book was translated into French by Francois Dassi, a lawyer and secretary to Henri d Albert king of Navarre. The first French edition appeared in 1527, at a time when there was considerable interest in France for all things Italian. Dassi made no attempt to modify the passages of the original which deal with specifically Italian figures, and his translation is complete and faithful. Like the Fairfax Murray copy, this copy lacks the final leaf, 'probably blank'. This Paris edition appears to have been shared by many printers, P. Sargent (BL copy), F. Gilbert (Fairfax Murray copy), A. Lotrian (BNF copy) as well as Jean Petit, all of which are extremely rare; we have not found a copy of the Petit imprint recorded online.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CAVICEO, Jacomo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816070390095,"sku":"L1289","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1289-2.jpg?v=1781795324"},{"product_id":"laet-johannes-de-with-abelin-johann-philippx-cootwijk-johannes-van-drechsler-wolfgang-farghani-sionita-gabriel-hesronita-johannes","title":"LAET, Johannes de [with] [ABELIN, Johann Philippx, COOTWIJK, Johannes van, DRECHSLER, Wolfgang, FARGHANI, SIONITA, Gabriel, HESRONITA, Johannes]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst editions of these two interesting works on Persia and Arabia, designed for of investors interested in the opportunities afforded by the trade opening up in the New World and the East, especially clients of the relatively new Dutch West and East India companies. De Laet (best known for his History of the New World), was a founding director of the Dutch West India Company, and remained a director until his death. He dedicated the first work to the English antiquary William Boswell, having spent some time in London, to learn the trade of a merchant; he corresponded regularly with William Camden, Sir Henry Spelman, Sir Simonds D Ewes and other English scholars. His work is divided into two parts, the first gives a general description of the region, including eight charming and accurate full page woodcuts of Persians in costume, probably inspired by earlier works such as Nicolay s on the Turks. The second part gives short and important accounts of various travels into into the east, some taken from Ramusio, including the journeys of several Englishmen such as Cartwright, Joseph Salbank and Robert Covert, Richard Steele, and John Newberry. \"Cet ouvrage, dit Boucher de la Richardie, est plus recherch é pour les relations que J. de Laet a jointes √† sa description de la Perse, que pour sa description m√™me, qui est très-superficielle. . Les  écrits g éographiques de Laet sont r édig és avec beaucoup de soin et d'exactitude; ils ont encore de int éret aujourd'hui, parce qu'ils servent √† faire connaitre les changements survenus depuis dans divers pays de l'Europe.\" Schwab. The second work is an interesting compilation of descriptions of the habits and customs of Arabic countries, Islamic and Arabic history, topography and laws, including an account of the travels to Jerusalem and Syria by Johannes Cootwijk, and an appendix on the Muslim calendar. It includes the description of numerous Arab cities such as Baghdad, Bokhara, Damascus, Medina, Mecca, Aleppo, etc. and also contains; Gabriel Sionita, \"De nonnullis orientalium urbibus, nec non indigenarum religione ac moribus, tractatus brevis\" (pp. 3-90); Christophe Richer, \"De moribus atque institutis turcarum, arabum, aliarumque, quae Mahumedem sequuntur, gentium\" (pp. 91-112); Johannis Cotovici, \"Itinerario hierosolymitano et syriaco, de sacris, ritibus, moribus et institutis mahometaeorum\" (pp. 113-228); Johann Ludwig Gottfried, \"Excerpta ex Lodovici Godofredi archontologia cosmica\" (pp. 229-242); \"Arabiae topographia et alia, ex Adriani Romani theatro urbium\" (pp. 243-257); Wolfgang Drechsler, \"Historia arabum\" (pp. 258-297). Printed by Janssonius in almost exactly the same style as the first, it was undoubtedly meant to complement it though, strangely, they are rarely found together. Very good copies of these two important first editions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LAET, Johannes de [with] [ABELIN, Johann Philippx, COOTWIJK, Johannes van, DRECHSLER, Wolfgang, FARGHANI, SIONITA, Gabriel, HESRONITA, Johannes]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816072618319,"sku":"L1322","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage2_87f3e6b5-9fbe-43cd-83f8-a7d57ddb8c55.png?v=1781795324"},{"product_id":"danti-egnatio","title":"DANTI, Egnatio","description":"First edition of Egnatio Danti s translation of Proclus   Sfera  and his companion treatise on the use of the sphere, and second edition of Piccolomini s treatise on the proportions respectively of water and dry land of the Earth. According to Graesse there was a 1540 edition of the latter, but from Ziletti s dedication a Venetian senator, it is clear that the book was first published in 1558. Houzeau \u0026amp; Lancaster lists a  very rare  1571 first edition of Danti s translation and treatise, but it is probably confusing the latter with Danti s commentary upon the translation of Sacrobosco s  Tractatus de Spaera  made by his grandfather Pier Vincenzo Rainaldi (called  Dante  after the author of the  Divine Comedy ) and first published in 1571. Egnatio Danti (1536-86), referred to as  Cosmographer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany  on these title-pages, was an outstanding scientist who taught at Pisa and Bologna, drew maps for Cosimo de  Medici, designed a number of astronomical instruments (two of which were set up in Santa Maria Novella, Florence), brought about the reformation of the Gregorian calendar after having detected a 11-day error, wrote the first book to be published in Italy on the astrolabe (1569), and was appointed Papal Cosmographer and Mathematician by Gregory XIII (1580). His translation of Proclus   Sfera , dedicated to Isabella de  Medici, opens with a two-page life of Proclus and contains long and detailed annotations, often flanked by diagrams, for each of the fifteen chapters of the book. It ends with a five-page essay on how to study the stars without using scientific instruments. Proclus (412-485), illustrious Neo-Platonic philosopher from Constantinople, was also a fine astronomer who expounded the division of the celestial sphere with modern accuracy. Danti s treatise on the use of the sphere is divided into thirty short chapters dealing with, i.a., how to make a sphere, determine the various positions of the sun and stars and the corresponding times of day and night, and study the Zodiac.\r The proportions of water and dry land was a much debated topic of the time. Like Aristotle, Leonardo was convinced that the quantity of water exceeded that of the land, and that a great quantity of water was collected in caverns underneath the surface of the Earth. Piccolomini was one of the first scientists to maintain the opposite. In his fifteen-chapter essay he provides detailed explanations of why, from the antiquity, the amount of water on the Earth had been thought to exceed that of the land, followed by the exposition of his own revolutionary theory. Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578), a typical Renaissance polymath, wrote poems along with scientific, philosophical and legal works. An important scientific collection in a very attractive contemporary Spanish binding - a charming example of 'encuadernaci√≥n plateresca', most widespread in university town in the C16. Both the Danti and the Piccolomini are also of interest as early Americana.","brand":"DANTI, Egnatio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816078287183,"sku":"L48","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L48-8.jpg?v=1781795322"},{"product_id":"acosta-emanuel-with-maffei-giovan-pietro","title":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of the first attempt to write a detailed history of the Jesuit missions in the East, especially in Japan, and one of the most important and diverse compilations of letters relating to the Jesuit mission in the Far East; prefaced by Acosta's important \"Commentarius\", the work includes some 39 letters dating from between 1548-1564, most of which relate to Japan. As early in the 1550 s influential Jesuits argued for an official synthesis of letters from the missions, motivated in part by the fear that someone else would do it for them, and in part to promote their enormous successes in the east. The text is based on a manuscript  Historia dos missiones do Oriente at é o anno de 1568  written by the Portuguese, Manuel da Costa. Da Costa, a Jesuit missionary and bibliographer who taught at Coimbra where most Jesuit letters were available in uncensored form. His manuscript was sent to Rome, translated into Latin, and was given to the young novice Giovanni Pietro Maffei (1533-1603) to prepare for publication. Maffei added the  De Japonicis rebus epistolarum  containing abridged Latin translations of letters sent from the Jesuits working in Japan until the year 1564. In his introduction Maffei congratulates Da Costa on his effort in summarizing the contents of the letters together in the commentary. Maffei was later to write the hugely successful  Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI , much praised for its excellent treatment of Japan. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The letters begin with the Japanese convert Paul's letter from Goa written in December 1548, followed by two famous letters of St. Francis Xavier published here for the first time. The first of these is written from Malacca in June 1549, the second on his arrival in Japan dated Kagoshima, November 1549. Letters by Frois (1532-1597), Vilela (1525-1572), and Almeida (1525-1583) are of particular interest in that they give much detail of Japanese religion, culture, and customs. This work was reprinted and translated many times, and made a significant contribution to early European perceptions of the east. A very good copy of the rare first edition of this seminal work that paints one of the earliest detailed pictures of Japan, from the Jesuit college in Mainz now the Johannes Gutenberg University.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Emanuel [with] MAFFEI, Giovan Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816110563663,"sku":"L1082","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Acosta-L1082-4.jpg?v=1781795309"},{"product_id":"puget-de-la-serre-jean","title":"PUGET DE LA SERRE, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of La Serre's description of the famous visit of Marie de Medici to the Dutch Republic in 1638, beautifully illustrated with portraits by W. Hollar and with exceptionally fine etched views of the entr ée of the French Queen Mother into various Dutch cities, bound with the extremely rare continuation of her voyage to England, also superbly illustrated with portraits and views. Landwehr and Fairfax Murray ascribe all the engravings to Hollar, but Pennington, Parthey and Hind only the frontispieces, the view of the States General and portraits. Hollar lived at the time at London with the Earl of Arundel, enjoyed the patronage of Charles I and was one of the foremost engravers and illustrators of his day. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Marie de Medici, mother of Louis XIII, exiled in 1630, escaped to Brussels in 1631 (after the failure of her attempted coup against her son), where she lived for seven years, supported by a Spanish pension. She continued intriguing against Richelieu and was forced to flee to Holland, greatly to the indignation of Philip of Spain, who at once stopped her allowance. Her visit to Amsterdam was considered a diplomatic triumph by the Dutch, as it lent official recognition to the newly formed Republic; accordingly she was given an elaborate ceremonial royal entry. Spectacular displays, by Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert, and water pageants took place in the city s harbour. There was a procession led by mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island. She was accompanied by the present author, Puget de La Serre, from Toulouse, librarian of Gaston d'Orl éans and prolific author of novels and histories. His description of Marie s voyage is magnificently illustrated with splendid views of the towns visited and the pageants and ceremonies, including a magnificent double page view of her procession approaching Hertogenbosch where she was met by Prince of Orange. There are further fine etchings showing her disembarking at Gorcum, Dordrecht and at Rotterdam. The whole procession is shown again nearing The Hague, and at Amsterdam a boat-show on the canals is depicted. At Leiden the 'Entr ée  is shown on a quay alongside a canal, and the last plate, shows the Queen Mother's dramatic stormy channel-crossing to England. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Following her travels through the Netherlands, she sought refuge in England which was granted by Charles I. Marie had a grand reception and St. James's Palace was given her as a residence, where she kept a court of her own. However she was mobbed and insulted by the people, even in the palace and forced to leave in 1641. The work is illustrated with superb views of her arrival in Harwich, her entr ée in Colchester, the country houses she stayed at through East Anglia, and her entrance to London. The magnificent double page engraving representing Marie's public entrance into London is particularly interesting; it is one of only two street views extant of the City previous to the great fire. The scene shows the royal cortege in the middle of Cheapside, by the Cheapside Cross, one of the crosses erected by Edward I, to mark the nine resting places of the body of his beloved queen, Eleanor of Castile, on its way from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey. It was destroyed by order of parliament in May 1643. It also depicts the Cheapside Standard, rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI. Stow describes it exactly as represented in this engraving. There are numerous trade signs seen in the illustration; every house had a sign, as shop windows were too small to afford any idea of the trade carried on within. This is followed with scenes of her arrival at St. James Palace, the receptions there, and a view of the Thames, the Tower of London and the firework display that celebrated her arrival. The fine engraved frontispiece and three portraits are among Hollar's finest productions. A superb copy, extremely rare with both parts, of a most interesting and important work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Henry de la Tremouille 1599-1674, was a celebrated French general, cousin of Cond é and grandson of the prince of Orange, William the Silent, also the grandfather to William III of England. De la Tremouille s last active service was in Italy - where he received the wound that enforced his retirement. A. Walsh, was from a Jacobite ship owning family, resident in St. Malo after 1685, which provided and manned the vessel which took Prince Charles Edward to Scotland in 1745. The family bought the Chateau de Serrant in 1749 and became Comtes de Serrant in 1755. The ch√¢teau passed back to the Tremouille family in 1830 when Valentine Walsh de Serrant married Charles, Duc de La Tremouille.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PUGET DE LA SERRE, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117346639,"sku":"L1023","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0014_ecc9c73f-d3bf-4c49-92f4-58a5aba70354.jpg?v=1781795305"},{"product_id":"reserved","title":"RESERVED","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare edition, the eighth published in ten years of the first major work on China and the first European book in which Chinese characters occur. All early editions in the original Spanish are now rare. It includes the celebrated 'Itinerario del nuevo Mundo', details of Tordesillas  voyage from Manila to China, the first Franciscan mission to China in 1579 and the account of the Canary Islands, Santo Domingo, the Philippines, Japan, Malacca and Coromandel, along with Loyola s account of the discovery of New Mexico by Antonio d Espejo which was never published separately. An English translation by Robert Parke was published in 1588. It was the first major survey of China and ran to some 33 editions between 1585 and 1613. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  This work, the first great book about China to be published in Europe, was a compilation of material Mendoca had obtained from a few Spanish missionaries, both Augustinians and Franciscans, living in the Philippines who had visited the southern coast of China for brief intervals. Mendoca s principle source was the learned Martin de Rada. This wonderful book contains a four-page sketch of the history of China, from Emperor Yao to the Wan-li Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Mendoca probably got much of his information from the papers of de Rada, including Chinese books he had bought during a short visit to Fu-chien province, that he had had translated by Chinese people living in the Philippines.... Though brief, this summary gives a historical dimension to this first book about China to be presented to the European reader, a work that was printed in forty-six editions in seven languages in the first fifteen years after it came out.  Thomas H. C. Lee  China and Europe: Images and Influences in Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESERVED","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118657359,"sku":"L1581","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1581-4.jpg?v=1781795301"},{"product_id":"le-petit-francois","title":"LE PETIT, François","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this highly important and beautifully illustrated history of the Dutch Republic, printed privately for the author. The commendatory verses include one in Dutch by Nicholas Doublet. Although the author covers the whole of the country's history up to 1600, about two thirds of the text is devoted to the C16th., making it one of the most detailed sources for the struggle for Dutch independence. Le Petit lists some 160 authors whose works he employed in his compilation, but much of its value lies in his use of mss. and original documents, and thus in his account of events otherwise unrecorded in printed histories. Le Petit's own history reflects the unsettled nature of the times he wrote on: although born in 1546 at B éthune into a noble Belgian family, he later abjured Catholicism and fled to Holland where he served William Ist, Prince of Orange. By 1598 he was living in Aix-la-Chapelle where he wrote his \"Grande Chronicle\" and dedicated it to the Estates-General of the United Provinces. An account of the reputed Swiss engravers, Christoph von Sichem Sr. and Jr., is given in Nagler II pp. 309-11. The portraits are generally finely engraved and are often expressive and vital, especially the superb full page portrait of the author after the title. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n About 16 pages in vol. I describe the geography of the New World, the supposed origins of its native inhabitants, the voyages of discovery, the conquest of the Indians, the climate, agriculture and resources of the Americas, their colonization, government and the missions, and the shameful treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards. Further pages deal with the expeditions of the Dutch to the East Indies and their commerce and colonization there. In vol. II Drake's exploits against the Spaniards in the New World are recorded. \"Cette chronique,  écrite en mauvais français, est fort curieuse pour les nombreux faits qu'elle relate, et que l'auteur a puis és aux sources originales . Il dit dans son  épitre d édicatoire qu'il a d écrit les choses après les avoir vues sur les lieux, et promet d'√™tre beaucoup plus exact que Guichardin qu'il contredit souvent\" (Nouv. Biog. G én.). \"En revanche la valeur historique du 2e vol., qui embrasse la p ériode de 1556-1600, est incontestable; il contient, √† cot é d'extraits de plusieurs auteurs ant érieurs, beaucoup de d étails et de particularit és qu'on chercherait vainement ailleurs.\" Biblioteca Belgica. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very good, totally unsophisticated copy, from the exceptional library of Nicholas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and passionate archaeologist, whose library of was \"parmi les plus pr écieuse concernant l'histoire de France\" (Guigard II p. 221), and then, along with many of Foucault's books, to the equally extraordinary library of the Earls of Macclesfield.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LE PETIT, François","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120525135,"sku":"L861","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0100.jpg?v=1781795293"},{"product_id":"reserved-2","title":"CIEZA DE LEÓN, Pedro [with] LOPEZ DI GOMARA, Francesco","description":"\u003cp\u003ei) Pedro Cieza de León (1518-1584) served in the Indies under Pizarro and lived for 17 years in Peru. His ‘Istorie’ is based on this long stay and his travels from place to place in the “Great Kingdom”. Divided into 122 chapters it begins with the discovery of the Indies and the foundation of Panama, then describes historical events and geographical characteristics of the various provinces which Cieza visited, and offers a fascinating account of the habits of the indigenous peoples. “One of the more important sources for the early history of Peru. The author describes Peru’s resources, vegetation and Indian tribes from personal experience, and also comments on Spanish administration of the region” JFB C256 on the second ed. Cieza never published a sequel to this ‘Prima Parte’ (though according to Sabin p.73 it exists in ms.). Nonetheless, these two related essays by the Spanish-American historian Francisco Lopez de Gomara are habitually treated as the second and third parts, the first being a history of the Western Indies, the second of Mexico.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eii) Important early essay by Spanish-American historian Lopez de Gomara on the history of the New West Indies, “covering the discovery, early exploration and first settlement of the New World by the Spaniards,” (Sabin on 1564 ed). Beginning with a discussion of the nature and location of the ‘Antipodes’ – meaning those places on the opposite side of the world – the text moves on to discuss the life and times of Christopher Columbus and a wealth of information on the religions, customs, geographies and appearance, of i.a. Honduras, Cuba, Venezuela, Peru and Nicaragua. The text discusses the division of territories between the Spanish and the Portuguese, the lives and achievements of the principal conquistadors, conflicts and allegiances with the natives including the Incas and reports mass deaths amongst the local population due to the introduction of alien germs such as smallpox. Although Francisco López de Gómara (c. 1511-1566) never actually visited the New World, through his close acquaintance with Cortés and leading conquistadors he had unparalleled access to first-hand testimony and documentary sources making this work “indispensable to the student of Spanish affairs after the conquest” (Sabin) and a prime resource for 16th century Latin-American history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eiii) Continuation of Gomara’s history of the West Indies, dealing primarily with the conquest of Mexico and focused on the personality of Hernán Cortés, leader of the Spanish expedition. Cortes’ audacious adventures against Montezuma’s Mexican empire from 1518 onwards aroused great interest in his native Spain, and won rich and extensive colonies for Charles V. The work contains a considerable amount of biographical, anthropological and topographical information, in addition to a detailed and lively account of Cortes’ voyage and campaigns against the Aztecs, culminating in Spanish dominance over the former Aztec Empire. It concludes with a Nahuatl vocabulary and some general information on Aztec social customs, religious practices and cosmographical theories.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CIEZA DE LEÓN, Pedro [with] LOPEZ DI GOMARA, Francesco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816122589519,"sku":"L794","price":9850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/CIeza-de-Leon-L794-1.jpg?v=1781795286"},{"product_id":"jesuit-letters","title":"JESUIT LETTERS","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this rare, early valuable collection of nine letters from the Jesuit missions in Asia written by Diaz, Froes and others between the years 1556 and 1559 and dedicated by the printer-publisher to Vittoria Farnese dalla Rovere, Duchess of Urbino. The letters include some of the earliest first-hand accounts of China and Japan to reach Western Europe. The first provides a description of Ceylon, the Moluccas and the East Indies, the third tells of events in Goa and Indo-China, the fourth deals with the Moslems, the fifth with Malabar and Cochin, the sixth with China and Japan and the seventh with Travancore. The second and last two comprise only brief extracts of longer works. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In almost every case the first reliable accounts of the Far East which reached Europe were letters from the Jesuit missionaries full of first hand information: social, cultural, political, ethnographic, commercial, geographical, economic and religious. It was the detail and apparent accuracy of their scholarly yet practical reports which prompted merchants, seamen and governments to follow them in opening up to European interests the farthest corners of the known world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT LETTERS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816123474255,"sku":"SN1166","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-11.20.56.png?v=1781795285"},{"product_id":"gysius-johannes-and-las-casas-bartolome_","title":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the of these two important works published in the Netherlands in 1620, containing French translations of two earlier works detailing Spanish crimes and atrocities in both Europe and the New World. The first part is an abridged version of  Oorsprong en voortgang der Nederlandtscher beroerten  (Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands) by Johannes Gysius (died 1652), first published anonymously in 1616. The second part is a translation of Brev√≠sima relaci√≥n de la destrucci√≥n de las Indias (A short account of the destruction of the Indies), written by Bartolom é de las Casas (1474 1566) in 1542 and first published in 1552. These histories were published together under a new title by Jan Evertszoon Cloppenburch (1571 1648), an Amsterdam bookbinder and publisher of Bibles and patriotic and religious books and tracts associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. Gysius was a minister, whose book is a history of the Dutch revolt against Spain in 1555 98, containing accounts of such events as the sieges of Haarlem, Leiden, and other cities and the execution by the Spanish of Count Egmont in Brussels in 1568. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Las Casas was reprinted in 1620 and 1630. The first of these editions appeared in Amsterdam without any prefatory matter not even the author s .. relying largely on copperplates to tell a pictoral story of torture and cruelty on the title page and throughout the text. The publisher, Jan Evertz Cloppenburg, presented a typology of Spanish cruelty. He included two title pages set up in identical ways with the same pictures . The first,..was on the Low countries and the second was about the new World and preceded Las Casas s account. The first title page included writing surrounded by pictures of men, women and children being tortured. Philip of Spain presided at the top and centre above the title, his vassals  Don Jan  and the  Duke of Alva  are shown facing the title: the Spanish cruelty in the Netherlands was mirroring that in the New World. .. This symbolic correspondence was a central typology of the Old World and New. Cloppenburg was asking the readers to see the Old World through the New. .. Here the publisher says that the Spaniards brought war and tyranny to the Low countries under the same religious pretext that they used to tyrannise the Natives in the New World a hundred years before. The heretics and the Lutherans in the Netherlands had taken the place of the pagans an Idolaters of the New World. .. In some of the engravings in Cloppenburg s edition, the inhabitants of the Netherlands are naked like the Natives. The translation, which is from the dutch, sometimes elaborates beyond Las Casas s original to make the Spaniards seem even crueler. The engravings of the Flemmish artist Theodore de Bry, which had been in the Frankfurt Latin edition of Las Casas in 1598, constituted part of this edition, where they reinforced visually the worst atrocities in the text.  Jonathan Hart  Literature, Theory, History.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of this important reinterpretation both these works.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127144271,"sku":"L1795","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/l1795-le-miroir-10.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"acosta-jose-de","title":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","description":"\u003cp\u003eThird edition of these pioneering treatises on the geography, anthropology and evangelisation of South America, previously published in Salamanca in 1588\/1589 and 1595. Jos é de Acosta (1540-1600) was among the first Jesuit missionaries to embark for the Spanish New World. He spent much of his life in Peru. The main settlement of the order was at that time in the village of Juli, on Lake Titicaca. Here, a college was set up to study the languages of the natives, while the newly-funded Jesuit printing press issued the first printed book of the Americas in 1577. Later, Acosta moved to Lima and taught theology at the university. In the Third Council of Lima (1582-1583) reorganising the American church, Acosta took a very active part and became its official historian. Following an adventurous journey through Mexico, in 1587 he head back to Spain, where he was appointed head of the Jesuit college in Valladolid and later Salamanca. A prolific writer, he is mostly famous for his very successful Historia natural y moral de las Indias. This knowledgeable, realistic and detailed description of the New World was sought after and soon translated into Italian, French, German, Dutch and English. The Natura novi orbis opening this edition represents the early draft of the Historia. In it, Acosta provided the first account of altitude sickness, which affected him while crossing the Andes. He also divided the Amerindians into three categories, acknowledging the Incas and Aztecs as fairly advanced societies in the civilisation process. The second part comprises a very innovative essay on evangelisation. Acosta struggles to demonstrated to his contemporaries that Amerindians were part of the original God s plan for mankind and thus were not inferior creatures undeserved of being Christianised and saved. In grounding his argument, the idea that the first inhabitants of America migrated from the biblical world (specifically from Asia), played a crucial role. Indeed, he was the first writer to postulate the existence of a land bridge at the northern or southern extremities of the two continents, long before the discovery of the Bering Strait. In his missionary zeal, Acosta was much concerned with the preparation and morality of priests, who he encouraged to study the aboriginal languages as an essential part of their duties.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACOSTA, Jos é de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127439183,"sku":"L1787","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1787-Acosta-666-e1436265905365.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"mexican-church","title":"MEXICAN CHURCH","description":"\u003cp\u003eExtremely rare first edition of the decrees issued by the third Mexican Council of 1585 and approved by the papacy four years later. Gathered by the Viceroy and Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras, this highly influential assembly brought the decrees of the Council of Trent into the religious and social life of the New World, drawing up a legislation amazingly in use until the early twentieth century. Bishops attending the council focused mainly on doctrine, the internal organization of the Mexican province, missionary activities and rights of local people. Their decisions were first recorded in Spanish and later translated into Latin, so as to be confirmed by the pope. Yet, the Roman cardinals  committee in charge of approval rewrote large part of the decrees, strictly sticking to those of the Tridentine Council. As a result, the final official text came out only in 1622. The printed marginalia of the volume refers constantly to the sources of the Mexican decrees. Along with canon law and papal bulls, they comprise especially the deliberations of the Council of Trent, of the five Synods held in Milan under Carlo Borromeo as well as assemblies of the American and Spanish Church in Lima, Quiroga, Guadix and Granada. The final part of the book, and perhaps the most important, is devoted to the statutes of the recently-established Mexican Church. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The beautiful engraving of the title shows the personification of the Faith and Church in a classical architectural frame. It is signed at the bottom by the Dutch artist Samuel Stadanus. Stradanus worked in New Spain from about 1604. His most prominent patron was the promoter of this belated first edition, Archbishop Juan P érez de la Serna (1573-1627), whose arms appear at the head of title.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MEXICAN CHURCH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127504719,"sku":"L1925","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4959.jpg?v=1781795274"},{"product_id":"bressani-francesco-giuseppe","title":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","description":"\u003cp\u003eExceptionally rare and important first edition of this work by the Jesuit Bressiani giving the first general description in Italian of the Jesuit missions in Canada among the Huron and Iroquois tribes.  Francesco Giuseppe Bressani published his Breve Relatione in Italian in 1653. It is the only part of the voluminous Jesuit Relations or Relations des J ésuites that is in Italian. .. It is a factual account of the years Bressani spent in New France as a missionary among the settlers and Native people. At the same time it is a vision of the possibilities of future Italian settlement in the New World. As a result Bressani's chronicle may be examined as a testament to his religious faith and to his imagination in constructing the image of a martyr.  Joseph J. Pivato. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Bressani was born in Rome in 1612 and in 1626 joined the Society of Jesus. In 1642 Bressani was in Canada where he first worked in the French settlement of Quebec and the following year was sent to Trois Rivières to the Algonquin mission. In April, 1644, on his way west to the Huron missions he was captured by the Iroquois who killed one of his Huron companions and then took Bressani, a French boy, and five other Huron captives south into the territory which is now New York State. They tortured him for two months, before he was ransomed by Dutch settlers at Fort Orange and sent back to France in November, 1644. The following year he was back in Canada working at the Huron Missions until their destruction by Iroquois attacks four years later. In 1649 a war-party of some twelve hundred warriors attacked Huronia. By this time many Iroquois had firearms which they had procured from the Dutch on the Hudson River, the Jesuits were forced to retreat east to the territory of Quebec. Bressani, however, continued to work with the scattered and fugitive Hurons for some months back in the original Quebec settlements. Only his failing health forced him to return to Italy in 1650. He opens his description with reference to Pope Urban VIII letter of 1638 that forbade the enslavement of Natives in the New World. As subjects of the missions the natives were recognised as human beings with souls that needed to be saved. It is clear that Bressani shared these ideals and enthusiastically followed them in his mission work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Breve Relatione is organised into three parts. The first presents a very positive image of the missions: Bressani describes the geography and vegetation of Canada, and then deals with the Native people. The second describes the conversion of the Native people and the many difficulties encountered by the Jesuits who arrived to convert them. The third gives us graphic details about the suffering, torture, and martyrdom of the missionaries including the author. Bressani goes into great detail describing the society of the Hurons. He lists their food and feast celebrations, their communal singing and dances, explains marriage practices and compares them to those of the ancient Jews. He points out that in their system of government tribal chiefs are determined by succession by way of the mother's line. In their system of justice crimes of theft and murder are dealt with through fines and gift giving for reparation. It is clear that he admires these people for their honesty, hospitality, and inherent sense of right and wrong. He also describes the many obstacles the Jesuits encountered: the harsh climate, river rapids and waterfalls, the dangers of the journeys due to Iroquois attacks, the problems with the different Indian languages, conflict with the Indian medicine men, and the plagues which killed large groups of Natives. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the second part he includes his letter to his superior in which he recounts his capture by the Iroquois, his tortures, forced travels, beatings, starvation, mutilations, and final rescue. The third and final part of the Breve Relatione deals with the sufferings of the missionaries at the hands of the Iroquois in which Bressani gives several accounts of torture and martyrdom, reproduced from other volumes of the Jesuit Relations written in French, including the martyrdom of Father Isaac Jogues, Father Charles Garnier, and Noel Chabanel. He also recounts the fate of Father Anne de Noue who died of cold when he got lost in the snow.  In the Italian we can almost hear Bressani's voice as he argues that their (the Hurons) intellectual capabilities and skills are as good as those of any bright Europeans. They are capable of learning and knowledge and of showing faith. What we find in the first chapters of Breve Relatione is an image of the noble savage, long before this idea was expressed by Jean Jacques Rousseau in 1778.  Joseph J. Pivato.. An excellent copy of this exceptionally rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRESSANI, Francesco Giuseppe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128127311,"sku":"K20","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K20-2-1.jpg?v=1781795271"},{"product_id":"dionysius-periegetes-1","title":"DIONYSIUS Periegetes","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the original Greek text of Dionysius, first edition of the Latin translation of Remmius Palaemon and first edition of the commentary and additions of Celio Calcignini: the whole was edited by the printer, together with Ludovicus Bonaciolus. Dionysius, fl. probably in Alexandria in the first century B.C., produced this elegant and terse description of the habitable world in Greek hexameters. It was probably intended as a school geography, and certainly was used as such in the ancient world; it achieved great popularity as one of the earliest descriptions of far away places, both in antiquity and again, in translation, in the first decades of printing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIONYSIUS Periegetes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128454991,"sku":"L2135","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2135-Dionysius-733.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"mastrilli-duran-nicola-and-ranconier-jean","title":"MASTRILLI DURAN, Nicola and RAN√áONIER, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this remarkable report from the Jesuit missions in Paraguay. Nicola Mastrilli (1568-1653), from Naples, was a prominent churchman of the New World. After joining the Jesuit order, he was sent to Peru, where he changed his surname into Dur√°n and graduated at the University of Lima. He distinguished himself as a zealous preacher, directing in Juli (Bolivia) the first Jesuit mission deeply engaged with the evangelisation of the local population. In 1623, he was elected supervisor of the province of Paraguay and then of the whole Peru. His care for the Indians was all but common among the Spanish establishment and was questioned even by some member of his order. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n These letters, addressed to the general of the Society, Muzio Vitelleschi, recorded the fast expansion of Jesuit activities in the southern region of the Spanish Viceroyalty, mainly between 1626 and 1627. They were written on Mastrilli s behalf by his confrere and collaborator, the Belgian Jean Rançonier. As other contemporary reports from the Americas and the Levant, the letters met immediate success and were translated into French two years later.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MASTRILLI DURAN, Nicola and RAN√áONIER, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129634639,"sku":"L1966","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1966.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"cardim-antonio-francisco","title":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst uncommon edition of an early account of the Jesuit mission in Japan, established by St. Francis Xavier in the mid-sixteenth century, and other Christian outposts in Southern Asia. The original Portuguese text was never printed, while this Italian translation was probably accomplished by the Jesuit Giacomo Diacetto. A rare and partial French version was published the following year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAntónio Francisco Cardim (1596-1659) was a leading Jesuit missionary in the Far East, spending many years converting locals and organising Christian communities in the ancient kingdoms of Ayutthaya, Lan Xang and Tonkin. Back in Rome and later in Portugal, he supervised the large ecclesiastical province of Japan, which included also Macau and the Siamese area, and wrote several works related to those regions; most famously, he thoroughly recorded the persecutions of the Japanese Christians from 1597 to 1640 and published one of the earliest detailed map of Japan. His Relatione, dedicated to Pope Innocent X, narrates the troubled life of the Jesuit Company in Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, as well as Macau and the island of Hainan, dwelling from time to time on interesting linguistic problems in transposing Christian dogmas into the Oriental languages and cultures.\u003cbr\u003e\nThis copy was bought by Bellisario Bulgarini (died 1660), nephew of the renowned bibliophile and scholar of Siena Bellisario Bulgarini (1539-1620). Bellisario the Younger records in the inscription at the end of the book that he acquired the volume for one lira from the bookseller Filippo Succhielli. He contributed to the enlargement of the vast family library, on which see Cento anni di libri: la Biblioteca di Bellisario Bulgarini e della sua famiglia, circa 1560-1660 (esp. no. 257bis) and Dennis E. Rhodes, ‘Per la biblioteca di Belisario Bulgarini e per la storia del mercato librario in Siena lui vivente (1539-1620)’, in Studi bibliografici: atti del Convegno dedicato alla storia del libro italiano nel V centenario dell’introduzione dell’arte tipografica in Italia, Bolzano, 7-8 ottobre 1965, Florence 1967, pp. 159-168.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CARDIM, Ant√≥nio Francisco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816130781519,"sku":"L1980","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9598.jpg?v=1781795263"},{"product_id":"strabo","title":"STRABO","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the original text of one of the earliest and most influential geographical surveys of Antiquity. Scion of a prominent family of the Pontus region, Strabo (64\/63 BC-c. 25 AD) travelled extensively through Southern Europe, North Africa and Middle East, mostly during the peaceful reign of Augustus. The Geography is his only surviving work and the first comprehensive account of the subject as known to his contemporaries. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The topography, geology, history and political features of the main regions of the Roman world are thoroughly described, relying on first-hand investigation and many Greek sources now lost, such as the writings of the first systematic geographer, Eratosthenes (c.276- 195\/4 BC), and of Hipparchus (c.190-120 BC). Above all, however, Strabo regards Homer as the most authoritative writer. Strabo s descriptions of the Mediterranean regions, Asia Minor and Egypt are excellent, while those of Gaul and Britain are weaker. Almost unknown to the Romans, the Latin version of the Geography became the standard geographical reference work during the Middle Ages. Among many other significant remarks and hypotheses, Strabo was the first scholar to discuss in detail fossil formation and vulcanism (both in Book 3). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This editio princeps   beautifully enriched with section titles, capitals and head-pieces printed in red (an unusual feature for the Aldine press)   was accomplished by Benedetto Tirreno and Andrea Torresani, most likely with the help of Marco Musuro; the dedication to Alberto Pio of Carpi bears a touching encomium of Aldus, recently passed away. The text was drawn from a rather corrupted manuscript, now in the BnF (Par. gr. 1395). The enterprise was wholeheartedly encouraged by Jean Grolier, who urged Torresani to continue editing and publishing Greek and Latin classics, as Aldus had done throughout his career.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"STRABO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131404111,"sku":"K49","price":55000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8158.jpg?v=1781795261"},{"product_id":"tornamira-francisco-vicente-de","title":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of a wide-ranging astronomical, cosmographical and historical book, one of the first of its kind to be directly written in Spanish. Little is known of the life of Francisco Vicente de Tornamira (1534   1597), born in Tudela, Navarre. Chronographia was the most influential work of this prominent Spanish astronomer, illustrating in 162 chapters the creation of the universe, the various branches of philosophy, the movement of planets, the constellations and the Zodiac, the universal chronology realm by realm, a series of calendars, almanacs and weather forecasts. All the subjects were elucidated further with a large number of illustrations, including, most notably, a traditional depiction of the Armillary Sphere and other globes, the Astronomical Man and the Roman gods on their chariots representing the planets named after them. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A fervent supporter of Ptolemaic vision of the universe against the heliocentric theory, Tornamira comes up with convoluted explanations to bridge the gap between mathematical calculation and the traditional model of planetary movement. A most interesting part is devoted to the solar calendar and the recent reform introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, discussing the exact days of the year in which Lent, Corpus Domini and Easter should be celebrated. Tornamira expanded on this topic in his subsequent work, the Spanish translation of the new Gregorian calendar (1591). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  On p. 40 there is a reference to the Magellan circumnavigation; on p. 497 a list of the midsummer s days of the New World; on p. 538-539 locations of New World cities.  Alden 585\/67.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133173583,"sku":"L2100","price":5250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_58d321ef-f136-42e3-94ac-f02255bd5756.png?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"korean-map-jeolla-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390   1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers. \u003cbr\u003e\n  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts (always with two-syllable names) and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). \u003cbr\u003e\n The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. There are one military base (byeongyeong ) and two naval bases (suyeong ), left and right, in pink bubbles. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Jeolla province   six  (Jeolla do lyuk ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Jeolla Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133337423,"sku":"L1754","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1754k.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"ming-chinese-map","title":"MING CHINESE MAP","description":"\u003cp\u003eWithin the map, the fourteen administrative provinces of Ming China are disproportionately expanded relative to surrounding areas. They account for approximately 80% of the surface. The layout of the inland waterway network is the most prominent feature. Minor rivers are rendered as large as major ones, and named. Lakes and even the sources of some rivers are named. Also privileged are the relative positions of major waterside settlements. The map depicts them as similarly sized and spaced, illustrating at a glance the order in which one would arrive if travelling by boat. This depiction of the waterway network and its cities is distorted to fill the area of Ming China, and water-poor areas in the far west and north are dramatically shrunk or dispensed with entirely. Compensating for the distortion, the true distance between major Ming Chinese cities is stated in miles (li ) at several points. \u003cbr\u003e\n Cities and districts of greatest political, cultural, and historical significance are ringed in red: the northern and southern capitals of Beijing and Nanjing , the cultural centre and ancient capital of Luoyang , and Xianyang . Xianyang was important to the Western Zhou (1046   771 BC, remembered as a halcyon period of pre-imperial China) and as well as the capital of the first dynasty, the Qin (221   206 BC), and these dynasties are noted on the map. Also drawn and named are several mountain ranges, which would serve as markers for navigation by water. Interestingly, the name markers of many of the fourteen provinces and Joseon Korea (Chaoxian ) are accompanied by the name of corresponding constellations from among the twenty-eight lunar lodges (ershiba su ). The Great Wall (chang cheng ) is marked, but its shape is distorted. For example, Ming extensions of the Wall into the east, which reach to the modern border of North Korea, are depicted as a stub. Similarly, the western extremities of the Wall extending through modern Gansu and Xinjiang are shrunk and simplified. \u003cbr\u003e\n Water features are also the focus in the depiction of territories beyond the border. Interestingly, foreign water features are rendered as large and as clearly as those within Ming China, even if unconnected. These include Lake Baikal (Hanhai ) and, in the southwest, what appears to be the Indus river. Mountains that are near to or form the source include the Khentii mountains (Langjushan ) and of greatest cultural importance, the Kunlun mountains in the west. One of the most intriguing features is the depiction of the mythical underground river linking the Yellow River back to its imagined source in the Kunluns, drawn in faint yellow and running below the Great Wall. Many non-Han tribes, settlements, and ethnic groups are indicated in their proper locales. \u003cbr\u003e\n In addition to these natural features, also depicted are outlying foreign regions and nations, bordering China or accessible by water. These are rendered comparatively small in contrast to the provinces of Ming China itself. These include modern Tibet and Xinjiang (Xifan ), Joseon Korea, Japan (Ribenguo ), what is now Vietnam (indicated both as Annan and Jiaozhi ), Thailand ( Siam , Xianluoguo ), the Chenla kingdom (Zhenlaguo ), and modern-day Hainan (Qiongzhou ). (It is noteworthy that the character used for  country , guo , is a pre-modern simplified form.) Also included is the Xiaoliuqiu island, just off the southern coast of Taiwan. However, Taiwan is not depicted, even though it was well-known to and settled by the Ming Chinese. This is also the case in other maps of the period. \u003cbr\u003e\n Far off islands in the southern and eastern seas or circled regions in the west and north are marked in minimal detail. The Liuqiu kingdom (Liuqiuguo ), for example, refers to unspecified islands in the East China Sea, though the name is currently used for the Ryukyu Islands. The  Kingdom of pierced stomachs  (Chuanweiguo ),  Kingdom of large men  (Darenguo ), and  Kingdom of little men  (Xiaorenguo ) belong to this category. Most interesting among these, perhaps, is the country is the far southeast, N√ºrenguo ,  Kingdom of women . Some scholars believe this refers to the uncharted but rumoured areas of Northern Australia, which many Ming Chinese presumed to operate a matriarchal society. Interestingly, in the territories to the west there are circled spaces that have been left blank, anticipating unknown lands there whose names might be added.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MING CHINESE MAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133402959,"sku":"L1756","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1756-1.jpg?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"korean-map-capital-province","title":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe map has been produced in the style of Jeong Cheok ( \/ , 1390  1475), a successful 15th century cartographer, himself a scholar-retainer who served several Joseon kings. The modern concepts of latitude and longitude were not understood in Korea until the early 19th century, and the flatness and distortion of the land in Jeong Cheok-style representations reflect this. Nonetheless, the shape, layout, and topographical properties of the provinces are depicted with impressive accuracy, enabling an overland traveller to plan the most direct route avoiding natural barriers.  Jeong Cheok  maps bear a number of distinct stylistic characteristics. First, further information is added in a text border surrounding the map. Second, natural topographical features are highly simplified; mountains are indicated symbolically as a jagged row of uniform peaks, and coasts and waterways are low-detail. Third, districts   always with two-syllable names   and military bases are represented by uniformly sized bubbles. In this map, these bubbles are pink; the district name is written down the centre of the bubble; to the right is the number of days of overland travel required to reach it from the capital, and to the left is its administrative classification. The capital city (gyeong ) bubble is circled twice. The Joseon administrative classification system includes, from largest to smallest, the bu (provincial capital city), mok (mid-level city), gun or su (county or prefecture), and finally lyeong or gam (small town). The lines and text of the map are drawn in black ink. Land is uncoloured, while water is depicted in a light blue wash. Strikingly, water is coloured darker blue where it meets land. Mountains are coloured brown and labelled. Islands, also named, are depicted as white ovals in the ocean. Land-based outposts (yeogdo ) and offshore ocean settlements are marked in white boxes. There is a title box with  Capital   [province] four  (gyeonggi sa ) in the top right corner. Within the text border running along the top, left, and right sides, there are remarks about what lies beyond the map in these directions.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KOREAN MAP, Capital Province","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133468495,"sku":"L1755","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-1_5ef02c80-d660-4d74-a4a8-895fa0f56ca1.jpg?v=1781795252"},{"product_id":"jesuit-relations","title":"JESUIT RELATIONS","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst Italian edition of an epistolary account of the Jesuit missions from all over the early modern world, translated from Spanish. It concerns in particular the vast maritime domain of the Portuguese Empire, consisting of numerous strategical harbours on the coasts of Africa, South Asia and South America. This network was instrumental in controlling the trade of spices and precious metals, but offered also safe starting points for Catholic evangelisation. This collection of letters narrates travels to and fro and daily missionary life in Brazil, India, China, Japan and Ethiopia, providing details of the Jesuit activities, including mass conversions, as well as relevant information on local people, flora and fauna. Often, missives are sent to or from the St Paul s College of Goa, which was established about 1542 by Francis Xavier as the educational and cultural centre of the Jesuit expansion in the East, and housed the first printing press in India from 1556. These letters were highly sought after in secular Europe, often providing the only reliable information available on the political, economic, commercial and social conditions of large and increasingly important part of the globe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JESUIT RELATIONS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133992783,"sku":"L2144","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/avisi.jpg?v=1781795217"},{"product_id":"dionysius-periegetes-and-pomponius-mela","title":"DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES and POMPONIUS MELA","description":"\u003cp\u003eAccurate edition of the two important geographical texts of antiquity, used for centuries as textbooks on the subject. Dionysius Periegetes (2nd century AC) was a Greek poet, who epitomised in verse the geographical knowledge of his time, exerting great influence over Roman and medieval scholarship through the Latin transpositions of his work made by Avenius and Priscian. Pomponius Mela (died c.45 AD) was the most prominent of Latin geographers, largely employed as an authoritative source by Pliny in the geographical section of his Historia naturalis. Following coastlines, Mela provides a ground-breaking description of Western Europe and British Isles, though less detailed as regards Asia and Africa than his Greek colleagues, especially Strabo. With the help of his brother-in-law, the brilliant humanist Isaac Causabon (1559-1614), Henri Estienne made relevant additions and improvements to previous editions, including his father s. The volume also includes Aethicus s Cosmographia, Solinus s Polyhistor and Eustathius of Thessalonika s commentaries on Periegetes, as well as a detailed annotations on the Greek text by Estienne himself and other scholars.  The Greek ex libris pasted on title ( from the [books] of Blancardus ) is a special mark of affection for the book from its owner. It is notoriously difficult to date these printed slips, but the typeface and ageing of paper suggest this label is c. 17th. As the owner was clearly a scholar of the Greek language, the only plausible  Blancardus  is Nikolaas Blankaart (1624-1703), who commonly used the Latin transliteration of his surname. A talented Dutch classicist educated in Leiden under the supervision of Salmasius, Blankaart edited Florus, Curtius Rufus and Arrian along with some dictionaries and repertoires of Byzantine grammarians. He is reported to have drawn maps of Asia, Europe and Africa relying on ancient sources (D. van Hoogstraten, Groot algemeen woorden-boek, II, 1725, p. 269), with this book almost certainly playing a crucial role in the endeavour.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES and POMPONIUS MELA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816134484303,"sku":"L2094b","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2090-Dionysius-1-e1466262078303.jpg?v=1781795213"},{"product_id":"casas-bartolome-de-las","title":"CASAS Bartolom é de las","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of the first Italian translation of Las Casas   Brevissima relation  a fundamental text in the history of the Spanish conquest, and in establishing the rights of indigenous Indians. Las Casas was the first great historian of the New World and famously argued the humanity of indigenous Americans and African slaves in the Valladolid debate of 1550-1551, against the counter-arguments of Juan Gin és de Sep√∫lveda. While a boy in 1493, he witnessed the return to Seville of Christopher Columbus after his first voyage, and later the same year Las Casas' father Pedro and several of his uncles embarked for the New World as members of Columbus' second expedition. With his father, Las Casas emigrated to the island of Hispaniola in 1502 under Nicol√°s de Ovando, and witnessed the brutalities committed against the Tainos. He played a significant historical role as an eyewitness to one of the most important eras in history as he made an abstract and copy of the diary Christopher Columbus kept of his voyages and incorporated much of Columbus writings, diary and log in his own history. Today, both the Columbus diary as well as the copy have disappeared but Las Casas' abstract survived. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n His work is a primary source for the early period of Spanish Colonialism. In 1550 he took part in official debates on the status of indigenous peoples and used this opportunity to prepare a series of nine essays that subsequently appeared in Seville in 1552 and 1553. He was keenly aware of the power of the printed word, so much so he ignored the need to secure royal permissions before publishing. With their wide ranging indictment of Spanish atrocities, they had an immediate impact in Europe. They were widely translated and frequently reissued, especially in anti-Spanish contexts. Las Casas became Spain s witness against itself. The critique was particularly powerful because Las Casas was not only a master of philosophy and logic, he was an acute observer who reported on the situation of the native populations in an immediate and persuasive style. The work is of immense significance, both for its immediate effect in reforming the Spanish colonial system, and as an extremely early example of European concern with the human rights of indigenous peoples. It was his descriptions of the plight of the native populations that early modern Europeans remembered.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASAS Bartolom é de las","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816135729487,"sku":"L2357","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2357.jpg?v=1781795210"},{"product_id":"polo-marco","title":"POLO, Marco","description":"One of the earliest editions, including a charming illustration of Marco Polo at the court of the Khan, of the well-known account of his travel in Asia (and particularly China), which was considered legendary by his contemporaries. Born in Venice (1254) from a family of merchants, in 1271, together with his father Niccol√≤ and the uncle Matteo, he embarked on an epic journey across Asia, arriving in Peking, where he was in the service of Kublai Khan, the Mongolian Emperor, for several years. Returning to Venice in 1298, Marco was taken as a prisoner by Genoese after the battle of Curzola. It was in prison that he dictated his adventures to Rustichello da Pisa who first put them into writing in French, probably using Marco s diary. After gaining his freedom Polo lived in Venice for the rest of his life (1324-25).\r \r About 150 manuscript editions in different languages spread within a century, such as the ancient version in Venetian, only recently discovered ( Il Milione Veneto. Ms. CM 211 della Biblioteca civica di Padova di Marco Polo , ed. by A. Barbieri \u0026amp; A. Andreose, 1999). However, the anonymous shorter Italian version, first printed in 1496 (Venice, Giovanni Battista Sessa) and reissued many times by Righettini and others, was the most widely read by the Mediterranean sailors. Better known as  Il Milione , nickname of Polo s family, this work showed similarities with the typical merchant s manuals and used simple and concise language, including both first and second hand information on geography, customs and economies of unknown peoples and territories of Asia. The text opens with a short address to the reader and a chapter on the city of Trebizond. The first part is aimed at introducing Marco Polo s family. There follow 145 chapters describing the Turkish lands, small and great Armenia, Mosul and Baghdad, the territories of Balkh and Badakhshan, the fertile Persian Empire and its desert, the Tatar Empire and the borders of India. The work especially focuses on the politics, cities and architecture of the Chinese empire. For instance, many pages are dedicated to the luxurious residences of the Great Khan and the numerous diplomatic missions undertaken by Polo on his behalf, such as the journey to the extensive province of Tibet. Some of the information in this book was incorporated in important maps of the later Middle Age, such as the Catalan World Map (1375). Above all, Marco Polo s was the most influential travelogue on the Silk Road ever written in an European language depicting the enchanted Asia as a rich continent characterised by incredible resources, creatures and prodigies, which opened up the way for the arrival of thousands of Westerners in the centuries to come. It encouraged XV century traders interested in exotic products, such as silk, porcelain, jewellery and spices, to visit Asia and start new business, It also inspired missionary efforts from Europe, primarily by Franciscan, Dominican, or Jesuit missionaries.  This influence prevailed until the seventeenth century when the maps of Martini, the visits of the Jesuits and the work of de l Isle and d'Anville superseded his accounts . . . As a story of adventure, an account of the experiences of one of the greatest travellers who ever lived, the book has remained alive  ( Printing \u0026amp; the mind of man , p. 23).","brand":"POLO, Marco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816137630031,"sku":"K100","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-42-copy-copy.jpg?v=1781795198"},{"product_id":"hamond-walter","title":"HAMOND Walter","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Hamond s fascinating account of the island of Madagascar; sent by the East India Company to assess the feasibility of colonising the island, Hamond produced these two reports. The first comprises a description of the island, its climate and indigenous people while the second relays the benefits it would have to offer as an outpost for servicing the company s ships en route for the Persian Gulf and the Far East.  Hamond, author and explorer, published a translation of Ambroise Par é s  Methode de traicter les Playes faictes par Harquebuses et aultres batons a feu,  1617, 4to. He was in the service of the East India Company, and was employed by them to explore Madagascar and report on the advisability of annexing the island, of which he gave a glowing description.  DNB Hamond spent four months on the island, as a surgeon. However his treatise portrays an exaggerated prospect of it, stating that  for wealth and riches, no Island in the world can be preferred before it. As for gold, silver, pearle and precious jems, questionlesse the Island is plentifully stored with them  great quantities of Aloes  the first fruits of a most plentifull harvest, which is better than the gleanings of America .  Early descriptions of Madagascar and it s vegetation illustrate the kind of attractions that tempted colonisers and traders to undertake arduous voyages to the island in pursuit of advancement. Walter Hammond, .. spent some time on Madagascar in 1630, (and) published a pamphlet in 1640 entitled  A paradox .   He drew attention to its strategic use as a useful port of call to and from the East Indies, and to the fertility of its soil. By this time, Hammond had resigned his post in the company and was clearly writing tracks to encourage rivals to challenge his monopoly. His next attempt,  Madagascar the richest and most fruitful island in the world  (1643), also makes a strong case for colonisation.  Margarette Lincoln. British Pirates and Society, 1680-1730 \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  In his desire to present Madagascar and its allegedly primitive peoples as a semblance of the Garden of Eden, Hamond s writing can be seen as a precursor of the eighteenth-century salute to the noble savage  (ODNB). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very good copy of this fascinating pamphlet one of the earliest descriptions of Madagascar.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HAMOND Walter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816139465039,"sku":"L2519","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-11.18.45.webp?v=1781795186"},{"product_id":"trigault-nicolas-2","title":"TRIGAULT, Nicolas","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good, crisp copy of the second edition of Nicolas Trigault s influential Latin translation of Matteo Ricci SJ. Trigault (1577-1628) was a Flemish Jesuit who carried out ground-breaking missionary work in China in the early C17. Inspired by the activities of Ricci, Trigault founded new missions and encouraged the translation of European works on science and religion into Chinese. Between 1614 and 1618, Trigault was in Europe to report to Pope Paul V about the Chinese missions and to promote the Jesuits  work in China. Whilst in Europe, he edited and translated from Italian into Latin Matteo Ricci s missionary journal, first published in 1615 and reprinted numerous times. Ricci (1552-1610) spent over twenty years in China, where he travelled extensively, founded several missions and supervised the construction of a Catholic church in Peking, a city hitherto  forbidden  to Westerners. Ricci quickly mastered Chinese script and Classical Chinese, a linguistic talent he applied to the writing of a Portuguese-Chinese dictionary. After devoting a few pages to Ricci s biography,  De expeditione  provides a short introduction to Chinese administration, art and religion, including the presence of Islamism and Judaism. The rest of the work is concerned with the deeds of Ricci (and sometimes other Jesuit missionaries), his travels, learning, and encounters. One section is devoted to one of Ricci s fundamental contributions to Chinese culture: a European-style world map (1.52 x 3.66 metres) in Chinese, centred on China, which the Wanli Emperor requested to be printed on silk and hung on the walls of his palace it was also the first Chinese map to feature the Americas. A Latin adaptation of this map, circumscribed to the Chinese Empire, is present on the t-p of this edition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy belonged to Robert C. Jenkins (1815-96), a renowned C19 English antiquarian.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TRIGAULT, Nicolas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141201743,"sku":"L2737","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2737.jpg?v=1781795179"},{"product_id":"muller-heinrich-ed-with-herberstein-sigmund-von","title":"[MÜLLER, HEINRICH, ed. [with] HERBERSTEIN, Sigmund von.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA finely illustrated sammelband of uncommon German ethnographic surveys of Muscovy and the Ottoman territories. I) Translated and edited by Heinrich Müller,  Türckische Historien  is an adaptation of influential contemporary works on the Ottomans. The first part is based on the Italian version of the  Palinodia de los Turcos  by Vasco D√≠az Tanco de Fregenal (c.1490-c.1573), a Spanish humanist and polymath. It is a compendium of the history of the Turks inspired by Paolo Giovio s renowned  Commentario de le cose de  Turchi  (Rome, 1532). Like traditional ethnographic accounts, it employs anecdotes and vivid episodes to enrich historical events, spanning the origins of the Turks and the war between Selim III, Charles V and the Serenissima. Unlike its source, this translation is handsomely illustrated with portraits of Ottoman Sultans. The second part, which bears a separate t-p and the date 1565, is based on  I cinque libri della legge, religione, et vita de  Turchi  (Venice and Florence, 1548) by Giovan Antonio Menavino (b. 1492). It is an account of the time Menavino spent at the court of the Sultan of Constantinople after being captured by the Turks aboard a ship, and contains a wealth of information on Turkish customs, laws, religion, institutions, and army, including observations on temples, burials, and  hospitals  for the relief of pilgrims, travellers, the poor and sick. The third part, with a separate t-p and the date 1563, is an edition of  Ursachen des Türkenkriegs  (Strasbourg, 1558) by Johannes Aventinus (Johann Georg Turmair) (1477-1534), a German historian and philologist. Aventinus analyses the religious, political and military causes of the Turkish wars, adding that the papal crusades had corrupted the principles of a just war with the market of indulgences. II)  Moscoviter wunderbare Historien  is a translation of  Rerum Moscovitarum Commentarii  (1549) by the historian and diplomat Sigmund von Herberstein (1486-1566). Written between 1517 and 1527, it relies heavily on Herberstein s personal experience and interactions with Russian people, whose language he could speak. The woodcuts and maps are in excellent condition; this is one of the earliest illustrations of the use of skis. The maps depict the topography of Muscovy, from its boundary with Livonia to Siberia, its physical conformation, rivers, lakes, and vegetation, and the first modern plan of the city of Moscow. They are elegantly engraved and in such fine detail that individual features and buildings are easily identifiable.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[MÜLLER, HEINRICH, ed. [with] HERBERSTEIN, Sigmund von.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141267279,"sku":"L2769","price":13750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/muller.jpg?v=1781795177"},{"product_id":"reserved-7","title":"RESERVED","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn uncommon edition of Nicolas Trigault s two earliest, important letters from China, sent in 1610 and 1611 to Cardinal Claudio Acquaviva in Rome. Trigault (1577-1628) was a Flemish Jesuit who carried out ground-breaking missionary work in China. Inspired by the activities of Matteo Ricci, Trigault founded new missions and encouraged the translation of European works on science and religion (including liturgies) into Chinese. A portrait of Trigault in Chinese costume (now at the New York Metropolitan Museum) was painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1617, when Trigault visited the Jesuit college in Antwerp to raise funds for his missions. The two letters in this edition were written shortly after his first arrival in Peking and contributed greatly, together with Ricci s texts, to bring in greater knowledge of China to Western Europeans. The 1610 missive is a beautifully-written and engaging factual and anecdotal survey, in the form of a travelogue, of the political, cultural and religious situation of China, including its government ( the King acknowledges no other God but himself ) and religious cults, and a description of the principles of the Chinese language (with  hieroglyphs  which only express  sounds , not vowels or consonants). The second letter is a long account focusing on the Jesuits   adventures  during their missionary work, from their flight from a house fire to meetings with local governors, the administration of holy water to native converts resembling more an exorcism rather than a Christian ritual, and the great difficulties they faced in obtaining a burial place for Matteo Ricci in Peking. Another edition of these influential letters was printed in Rome by Bartolomeo Zannetti in the same year, but no priority has been established.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESERVED","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816141922639,"sku":"L2727","price":5850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2727.jpg?v=1781795173"},{"product_id":"llwyd-humphrey-kromer-marcin","title":"LLWYD, Humphrey. KROMER, Marcin.","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of Llwyd s geographical and historical description of Ancient Britain prefixed by his farewell letter to the cartographer Abraham Ortelius dated from Denbigh 30 August 1568, ending with a short Welsh vocabulary. An English translation by Thomas Twyne,  The Breuiary of Britayne,  was published in the following year.  in August 1568, the Welsh scholar Humphrey Lloyd of Demby lay dying. Writing for the last time to his friend Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp, he reported that  a very perilous fever hath so torn this body of mine these ten continual days that I [have been] brought to despair of my life.  Along with the letter Llwyd enclosed a pair of maps, one of Wales and one of England and Wales, destined for inclusion in Ortelius s atlas. Llwyd further enclosed  certain fragments written with mine own hand which   (if God had spared me life) you should have received in better order,  These  fragments  belonged to an unfinished topographical description of Britain, more than half of which was devoted to the history and description of Wales  Humphrey Llwyd was among the most gifted and provocative scholars of his generation.   As MP for Denbigh he was instrumental in the passage of legislation for the translation of the Bible and Book of Common Prayer into the Welsh language.   Llwyd s work left a lasting mark on the literatures of both England and Wales. It is unlikely that Camden s great work would have taken quite the same form   or even borne the same title   without the prior example and influence of the Breviary  Philip Schwyzer  The breviary of Britain . Introduction.  [Llwyd] wrote the Commentarioli Britannicae descriptionis fragmentum, a short historical and geographical description of Britain. .. It was the first attempt to compile a chorographia of Britain as a whole. Central themes of Llwyd s work are his defence of Geoffrey of Monmouth (particularly countering the attacks of Polydore Vergil), and his belief in the integrity of the early British church.  DNB.  Llwyd s important work is bound here with the first edition of another most interesting geographical work by Marcin Kromer on Poland.  Polish diplomat, bishop of of Warmia, historian, and polemicist on behalf of the counter Reformation. Was born in Biecz and served as secretary to Archbishop Piotr Gamrat   When working in the Royal Chancellery he ordered and listed the most important royal archives in Cracow.  .. Kromer was active in political and diplomatic life (numerous legations) He was one of the most important figures in the Polish Counter Reformation .. . His major work, intended for foreign readership is his history of Poland from legendary times to 1506 De Origine et rebus gestis Polonorum . In addition to De origine, he contributed a geographical and political description of Poland: Polonia (1577).  D.R. Woolf  A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing.  The work is full of interesting details on the politics of early Poland:\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LLWYD, Humphrey. KROMER, Marcin.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816153588047,"sku":"L2914","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190807_141022.jpg?v=1781794926"},{"product_id":"lucangeli-niccolo","title":"LUCANGELI, Niccol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce first edition of this fascinating pamphlet describing the journey of Henry III of France from Cracow to Turin, and the celebrations prepared for his progress. Henry of Valois (1551-89), king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1573-75, was elected after the late Sigismund II Vasa in exchange for concessions to the Polish nobility. Soon after the death of his brother Charles IX, and to the chagrin of the Polish Senate, Henry returned to France becoming king in 1574 the last French ruler of the House of Valois. Dedicated to Cardinal Ferdinando, fifth son of Cosimo I de  Medici, the pamphlet begins with Henry s departure from Poland at night time and focuses on the numerous entertainments organized for his stay in Venice. Lucangeli superbly portrays the protracted Venetian celebrations, with cannons echoing through the city at Henry s passage on the Bucintoro decorated with fine gold. He also describes the architectural pageants erected throughout the city, with Latin mottos, political emblems like a dragon treading over human heads, ancient deities and heroes. Regattas organised in his honour through the canals were followed by lavish banquets adorned with sugar statues representing classical and biblical figures. Like other similar contemporary pamphlets faithfully reporting celebrations for royal progresses,  Successi  fed the appetite of the Renaissance elites for wondrous entertainments, intricate political emblems and the  mirabilia  of luxury.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LUCANGELI, Niccol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816153915727,"sku":"L2809","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_3250.jpg?v=1781794924"},{"product_id":"ramusio-giovanni-battista","title":"RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista","description":"\u003cp\u003eRemarkably crisp and clean copies of one of the most important collections of voyages and discoveries, beautifully illustrated. As here, most recorded sets are composed of different editions and those like this featuring the most complete editions of each of the individual volumes are rare. 1583 is the first complete (and augmented) edition of vol. 2, and 1606 and 1613 the only complete ones of vols. 1 and 3 (Brunet, IV, 1100-1101), adding for example the travels of Barents and Federici for the first time. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Born in Treviso, Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) worked as secretary and envoy to Alvise Mocenigo, having access to the latest information on expeditions and travels of exploration reaching Venice from abroad. First published by Ludovico Giunta in three separate volumes between 1550 and 1565,  Delle navigationi  was a collection of the first-hand Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Dutch (all translated in the Italian vernacular) and Italian accounts of voyages to Asia, Africa and America published up to that time, illustrated with bespoke maps the first work of its kind. The first volume is mainly devoted to  countries which have been known for 300 years , e.g., from Africa (and the kingdom of Prester John) to the Eastern Indies. The second features the accounts of Marco Polo on the Tartars and China (with the first mention of tea in Europe), as well as notices on Persia, Armenia and Paolo Giovio s ground-breaking work on Muscovy. The third is devoted to the world  unknown to the ancients  Columbus s navigations, Cort éz and Pizarro s expeditions, and notices on Mexico, Peru and other American kingdoms. In addition to engaging information on local flora, fauna, politics and customs,  Delle navigationi  provided accurate topographical information through handsome and innovative fold-out woodcut and copperplate maps illustrating Cuzco in Peru, Nuova Francia (Newfoundland) the second separate map of Northeast America with the colony of Montreal (the earliest printed such topographical plan for North America), Brazil, Sumatra (the first map of any island in South-Eastern Asia), Eastern Africa, one of the most complete maps of the Western Hemisphere, and a plan of the Mexican city of Temistitan. Through their re-prints of 1606 and 1613, the Giunta capitalised on the continuing commercial success of collections of travel writings epitomised by Richard Hakluyt s  Principal Navigations  (1589), the original model of which was, as it were, Ramusio s work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816154964303,"sku":"K128","price":39500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_5352-copy.jpg?v=1781794920"},{"product_id":"arthus-gotthard","title":"ARTHUS, Gotthard","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the FIRST EDITION of this collection of travel reports from Asia and Africa. Born in Gdansk, Gotthard Arthus (1570-1630) studied at Jena and worked as co-rector at the Frankfurt Stadtschule. He struck a twenty-year long collaboration with the de Bry press to work on the Latin translation of their illustrated series  Historia Indiae Orientalis  a fundamental work for the creation of a shared knowledge of the Orient in Europe the first volume of which was published in 1597. Arthus s work was a compilation of material also present in de Bry s. It covered not only India, Bengal, Ceylon, Malabar, Sumatra, Japan, China, the Molucchae and Philippines, but also parts of Western Africa like Mozambique and Madagascar, as well as the Azores and even, briefly, Brazil. It employed material drawn from the most recent accounts of Portuguese and Dutch expeditions and travelogues authored by Jesuit missionaries, covering a wide variety of subjects, from physical geography to flora, fauna, customs, politics and local illnesses. The beautifully engraved maps of Southern Asia, the Middle East and Persia, here in fine condition and impression, were taken from the reduced-size edition of Ptolemy s  Geography  edited by Giovanni Antonio Magini and printed in Cologne in 1597 (Shirley 202). The world map in two hemispheres and the portolan world chart were reduced from Mercator s double-page folio version printed in 1587 (Shirley 204).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ARTHUS, Gotthard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155095375,"sku":"L2836b","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2836.jpg?v=1781794918"},{"product_id":"barbaro-giosafat-et-al","title":"[BARBARO, Giosafat, et al.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good copy of the first Aldine and first collected edition of seven C15 and C16 Venetian travel narratives to the East, with a preface by Antonio Manuzio.  This volume of 1543 is rare and it is much more difficult to find fine copies of this than the second edition of 1545  (Renouard 128:8). The work contains accounts written by Giosafat Barbaro, Ambrogio Contarini, Aloigi di Giovanni and anonymous authors. Barbaro (1413-94) was a merchant based for sixteen years at the Tana, a major commercial emporium of the Serenissima near the Sea of Azov. His accounts told of travels in Crimea, the lower Volga and Dnepr, Constantinople, Trebisond, down to Tiflis, as well as Persia. Ambrogio Contarini (1429-99) wrote his narratives as a complement to those of Barbaro, whom he met in Persia, after travelling through Eastern Europe, Russia, the Tartar desert, Crimea and Caucasia. As ambassador, he told not only of adventurous passages and exchanges with peoples like the Tartars, but also meetings with important figures like the Persian king Usuncassan and the Grand Duke of Muscovy. Little is known of Aloigi di Giovanni (fl. early C16) who, after reaching Egypt on board of the Bernarda, travelled through Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia to India in 1529, which, together with Turkey, is also the subject of the anonymous narratives. Engagingly written, these accounts included descriptions of the culture and rites of local peoples, of expeditions such as that of Barbaro with 120 men to dig up an alleged treasure in Transcaucasia mercantile adventures involving fine gemstones and the sight of the 50,000 richly harnessed horses of King Sophi, so tall Aloigi di Giovanni could not reach their back by stretching his hand as far as it would go. A delightful epitome of the adventurous spirit of the Renaissance Serenissima.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[BARBARO, Giosafat, et al.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816157454671,"sku":"L3064","price":6750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3064-3.jpg?v=1781794903"},{"product_id":"somner-william","title":"SOMNER, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of the first edition of Somner s important description of the town of Canterbury and more particularly the Cathedral, finely illustrated with plates and a map.  The Antiquities of Canterbury, true to its title, deals with  antiquities : it is concerned only with that which is the work of civilization, and, its subject being Canterbury, it is not a country description, but an urban description. .. while Somner takes some basic notice of architecture, he does so in order to help determine age rather than to appreciate the impression a building might make on a visitor or resident. It is only in describing his beloved Cathedral that there is some betrayal of such sentiments .. .Somner takes his readers on a veritable guided tour of Canterbury Cathedral, and we may imagine that his text, rehearsing an itinerary which he had often followed in reality, while showing the church to visitors. In touring the building, Somner endeavours to inform his readers of the period of construction of each of the component sections, the benefactor or builder, and changes that may have transpired in form or utilization.  Somner often quotes from Erasmus  account of the Cathedral in pre-reformation times. Ironically Somner s book was used by the fanatical puritan preacher Reverend Richard Culmer who, in 1642, bearing a copy of this work, visited the Cathedral with the mayor in order to destroy the  Cathedrall Idolls . He wrote of the book that it was  a card and a compasse to sail by, in that Cathedrall Ocean of Images: by it many a Popish picture was discovered and demolished. It s sure working by the booke: but here is the wonder, that this booke should be a means to pull down Idols, which so much advaunceth Idolatry.  William Somner worked as an ecclesiastical notary at the Cathedral.  The Antiquities of Canterbury appeared when William was only 34   widely welcomed but the dedication of the book to his patron Archbishop Laud proved to be unfortunate. Laud was arrested for treason the following year and beheaded four years later. This setback put paid to William s original plans for a history of the whole county of Kent. When Cromwell s parliamentary soldiers smashed the cathedral font in 1642, William managed to collect the pieces and hide them. Eighteen years later, with the Commonwealth period at an end, King Charles II returned to England.., and called at Canterbury ..and William was able to offer the king a copy of his history of Canterbury. In that same year, 1660, William returned the pieces of font to the cathedral, and the elaborate apparatus was re-assembled  Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SOMNER, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816164204879,"sku":"L3010","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190719_162525.jpg?v=1781794879"},{"product_id":"casas-bartolome-de-las-1","title":"CASAS, Bartolom é, de las","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of the first Italian translation of this major work of American colonisation. Bartolom é de las Casas (1484-1566) was among the most influential figures in the definition of juridical and social principles for the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. One of the earliest settlers, he freed his native slaves in 1515, later defending their rights in front of the Emperor Charles V. In the 1520s, he joined the Dominican order and acted as a missionary for several years. He was the first to be appointed to the office of  Protector of the Indios , responsible for the well-being of the natives in the colonies. Originally published as  Entre los remedios  in Seville in 1552,  Libert√†  first appeared in Italian in 1636 as  Il supplice schiavo indiano . Addressed to Charles V, it was a manifesto (in 20 points) against  encomienda , i.e., the Spanish settlers  practice, authorised by the Crown, of exacting tributes and forced labour from the natives. It gave fundamental contributions to  the development of a canon law seeking to keep separate the reasons of the evangelisation of new peoples and those of the state , and to reflections on the natural right of the natives and the necessity to balance evangelisation and human dignity (Dalla Torre, 9-10). Translated by the printer Marco Ginammi, but maintaining the Spanish original, the 1640 edition was dedicated to Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, who had visited his bookshop in Venice. Ginammi, who had also printed Bartolom é s work on the conquest and destruction of the Indies, decided also to print that on the natives  right to freedom because  freedom should come before conquest . Ginammi was catering to the growing interest of the Venetian public in the conquest of the Indies and the particular success of Bartolom é s not always orthodox works. Indeed, Venetian readers,  proud of the independence of their territory , probably accepted more readily Bartolom é s statements in defence of freedom over subjection, which also  introduced several doubts on the legitimacy of the dominion of the Spanish government in America  (Serafin, 148). A remarkably influential early work on law, religion and human rights.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CASAS, Bartolom é, de las","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816164368719,"sku":"L3098","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/img_20190718_144604-scaled.jpg?v=1781794877"},{"product_id":"ptolemy-claudius","title":"PTOLEMY, Claudius","description":"\u003cp\u003eExceptionally rare edition of this popular astronomical text, very charmingly illustrated with numerous woodcuts, the last of the early editions, the only edition printed in the seventeenth century. The rather rudimentary map is marked i.a. with Mexico, New England, the West indies, Peru, the Straits of Magelan, Brasil and Virginia. Below the two southmost capes is a the land mass described as the  South Continent . The work was originally translated from the French  Compost et kalendrier des bergiers , and appeared in two forms throughout the C16th; one as  The Kalender of Shepards  and the other with the title  The Compost of Ptholomeus . Although they are often described as containing nothing from Ptolemy, other than the falsification of authorial attribution, the work does have a general articulation of some of the astrological matters set forth in Ptolemy s Quadripartitum. The influence of astronomy over individuals is discussed, and this version has a chapter on palmistry added at the end.  In the  Kalendar of Shepherds , the putative source of the astrological and health information is initially an unnamed, ancient shepherd.   the authentication for the information in the text was a natural and pastoral figure of wisdom, the void of book learning. In the prologue, it is also stated that  this boke was made for them that be no Clerkes to brynge them to great understandynge  thus identifying itself as a text for a non-elite readership yet at the same time offering access to the very traditional classical learning skills and intimating a connection between the occult knowledge and active reading. .. In Notary s 1506 edition, Ptolemy is merely cited in the table of contents in relation to the twelve signs of the zodiac but not mentioned in the text. In Pynson s 1518 edition, Ptolemy is referenced both textually and visually, again in relation to the zodiac, but as a very minor reference in the text. .. Beginning in the 1530s, the strand of the multi-text breaks off; the text is condensed, new images are added, others are eliminated, and the title is changed to the  Compost of Ptolomeus, Prince of Astronomy  .. These editions, initially published by Robert Wyer, make a significant modification: the name of the Ptolemy is increasingly inserted into the verbal text, shifting the authentication from the ancient shepherd to Ptolemy. .. The Catholic feast day calendar is eliminated, along with much of the Christian moralising and, generally, a narrower focus on the astrological components. Neither the woodblock image of the shepherd nor that of the scholar carries over once the text is renamed  The compost of Ptolomeus;  instead, the symbolic function previously vested in the figure of the scholar shepherd is now conflated into the single figure of Claudius Ptolomy,  Prince of Astronomeye . ..In his editions of the Compost, Wyer not only strengthened the association of the verbal and visual text with Ptolemy, but also incorporated specifically geographical information; Wyer appends a  Rutter , a navigational chart of the distances between various port cities, consequently increasing the function of the text as a source of geographic information.. For English readers in the early print era the images of and attribution to Ptolemy thus narrate and mediate an encounter with emerging geographical thought. The textual and visual attribution to Ptolemy created a kind of aura for the text that mystified the diffuse authorship of the work, and that subsumed the fascination with the occult and Catholic ritual into a pseudo-scientific discourse.  Keith D. Lilley  Mapping Medieval Geographies: Geographical Encounters in the Latin West . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Unsurprisingly all editions of this ephemeral and popular work it are exceptionally rare; ESTC records no more than two copies of any of the five earlier editions of this text, and records this, the only seventeenth century edition, in three copies only, two at the BL and one at Birmingham University library. No copies recorded in the US.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PTOLEMY, Claudius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166334799,"sku":"K153","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-1-1_9a584f5c-3067-4d95-ad05-137a9799d656.jpg?v=1781794869"},{"product_id":"leo-africanus-al-hassam-bid-mahammad-al-wazzan-al-zaygati","title":"LEO AFRICANUS [AL-HASSAM BID MAHAMMAD AL-WAZZAN AL ZAYGATI]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe important first edition in English, translated by John Pory, of this seminal classic of African topography and ethnography. Leo Africanus was an early C16 traveller who recorded in great detail the life of many remote North African kingdoms. He was born in Granada but in the 1490s his family moved to Fez in Morocco where Leo ultimately entered the service of the Sultan who sent him on commercial and diplomatic missions across northern and western Africa. In 1518 he was returning by sea from Istanbul and was captured, perhaps by Knights of Malta, who took him to Rome. There, under the patronage of Pope Leo IX he composed the present description of Africa, first published in Italian in 1550. It was a bestseller, put Leo at the centre of Roman intellectual life and remained one of Europe s principal sources of knowledge of the Arab-African world for the next 400 years. It was translated into English in 1600 by John Pory. Pory s letter  To the Reader  tells the fascinating story of Leo s life   a tale of complex interaction between Europe and Africa, Islam and Christianity ... This book was important in that it was written by a Moorish man and well regarded by scholars. However Pory is aware that some readers at this time might distrust the writings of a  More  and a  Mahumetan  (or Muslim), and he reassures them of Leo s sophistication: his  Parentage, Witte, Education, Learning, Emploiments, Travels, and his conversion to Christianitie .  (BL). \u003cbr\u003e\n It is very probable that Shakespeare was influenced by this work in his portrayal of Othello.  Pory s account of Leo s marvellous escape from  so manie thousands of imminent dangers  might remind us of Othello s tale of  hair-breadth escapes i  th  immanent deadly breach . Like Leo, Othello tells of being  sold to slavery  and we later learn that Othello was also a former Muslim, now baptised as a Christian. In his description of African people, Leo takes pains to give a balanced perspective, though it seems nonetheless stereotyped and prejudiced. Celebrating their  vertues , he says Africans are  Most honest people   destitute of fraud and guile . But  no nation in the world is so subject to jealousie  (p. 40). In the unpleasant description of their  vices , he says they are  very proud and high-minded, and woonderfully addicted unto wrath . They are also  so credulous that they beleeve matters impossible which are told to them  (p. 41) and promiscuous in wooing  divers maides  before settling on a wife (pp.41 42). It is hard not see these qualities reflected in Shakespeare s Othello, at least as Iago describes him. Exploiting the stereotypes that define the Moor in Venice, Iago talks of the  free and open nature  that makes Othello think  men honest  when they only  seem so . He tells Roderigo he suspects  the lusty Moor  of sleeping with Emilia, and plans to  put him into jealousy so strong  that his anger will cloud his judgement. Pory s English translation (1600) was printed in the same year as the Moroccan ambassador s visit to London to negotiate a military alliance between English and African forces, with the hope of conquering Spain. In his letter to Sir Robert Cecil, Elizabeth I s secretary, Pory exploits this opportunity to market the book as particularly current, saying  At this time especially I thought [it] would proove the more acceptable .   (BL). \u003cbr\u003e\n A handsome copy of this rare and influential first English edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LEO AFRICANUS [AL-HASSAM BID MAHAMMAD AL-WAZZAN AL ZAYGATI]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166629711,"sku":"K178","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190815_124843.jpg?v=1781794869"},{"product_id":"busbecq-ogier-ghislain-de","title":"BUSBECQ, Ogier Ghislain de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of these remarkably important letters on Turkey, written in the 1550s, with the only surviving glossary of a long-extinct Germanic language. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq (1522-92) was a scholar, keen herbalist and diplomat in the service of the Austrian monarchy; he spent several years in Constantinople where he negotiated the boundaries of disputed territories and was involved in politics at the court of Suleyman the Magnificent. First published without authorial licence in Paris in 1589 as  Itinerarium Constantinopolitanum ,  Epistolae  is his most famous work and one of the earliest Western testimonies on the Ottoman world. It gathers letters which Busbecq sent to the Hungarian diplomat Nicholas Michault. In addition to observations on the natural environment, he included in his work the first and only recorded glossary (80 words), as well as the excerpt of a song, in a Crimean dialect. Having heard of a Germanic language being spoken in Turkey, he managed to have an interview with a native speaker noting words close to Dutch (e.g.,  tag   day ,  plut   blood ), others which differed, and cardinal numbers (Considine,  Dictionaries , 140-41). Busbecq also expresses strong opinions on the conquest of the New World, as colonisers  seek the Indies and the Antipodes through the vastity of the ocean because there the booty is easy to take from na√Øve and gullible natives, without bloodshed . One of the English annotators of this copy, who wrote in English, Greek, Latin and Arabic, was a scholar at University College, Oxford, as per ex-libris on t-p. He wrote in Arabic the word  sherbet  to gloss a sentence on  sorbet , a cooling fruit drink typical of Eastern territories; according to the OED, the word was first recorded in English in 1603. He was also interested in Busbecq s observations on Turkish flora and fauna, as he glossed  glycyrrhiza  as  liquorish  and  sicedula  as  nightingale  and  beccafico . The Latin verse on the fly reprises some of the epigraphs which Busbecq used to conclude his accounts, e.g., the Tacitean  religion is the pretext, the object is gold  in his discussion of the conquest of the New World. A very influential work in the history of Western perceptions of the Ottoman world. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A jeweller named William Leedes took part in expeditions of the Turkey Company in 1579 and 1584, with other merchant adventurers, arriving as far as Baghdad.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BUSBECQ, Ogier Ghislain de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816167645519,"sku":"L3181b","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3181b-2.jpg?v=1781794864"},{"product_id":"conestaggio-cerolamo-franchi-di","title":"CONESTAGGIO, Cerolamo Franchi di","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the English translation of this most interesting history generally attributed to Juan de Silva, conde de Portalegre; the work deals with the recent history of the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal prior to and during the union of their crowns.  A history and description of Portugal and the East Indies containing a royal genealogy starting in 1090, a geographical description, Portuguese exploration and an anecdotal account of the wars between Portugal and Spain. Translated by Edward Blount (?) who had it printed in folio by Arnold Hatfield in 1600. .. Scott suspects that the real author was Juan de Silva, fourth Count of Portalegre, who concealed himself behind the name of Girolamo Franchi de Conestaggio.. Dedicated to Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southhampton by Edward Blount. No later edition.  A Bibliographical Catalogue of Italian Books Printed in England 1558 1603. Of particular interest is its treatment of the voyages of discovery and of Portuguese colonial expansion, especially in Africa (in battles against the Moors), Asia and the Southern Americas, its description of the states of the Colonies (e.g. Brazil apparently was only a penal colony while the Moluccas were prized for their cloves and nutmeg), and the role of the Jesuits in state affairs. Contemporary events in Europe are not ignored. The House of Hapsburg and the Prince of Orange figure fairly frequently and even the story of the request of aid from the people of Ireland to the Pope, against Queen Elizabeth I is recorded. The work begins with the genealogy of the Kings of Portugal from 1090 to 1527. The translation is almost certainly by Edward Blount (1565-1632), though it was also attributed to Marlowe, publisher and translator into English of a number of popular Spanish and Italian works of the day, including the first English edition of Cervantes. Interestingly the work has a double Shakespeare connection. It is dedicated by Blount to Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare s close friend and patron and Blount, of course, with Jaggard, was the publisher of Shakespeare s great first folio. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The early autograph could well be that of John Johnson of Cranbrook (1662 1725) the theologian who published several theological works in the Laudian tradition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CONESTAGGIO, Cerolamo Franchi di","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816168628559,"sku":"L3270","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/dsc_0976.jpg?v=1781794860"},{"product_id":"regiomontanus-iohannes","title":"REGIOMONTANUS, Iohannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very handsome copy of the rare enlarged third edition; De triangulis was Regiomontanus s most important scientific contribution. Completed in 1464, it remained in manuscript for nearly seventy years before being published in 1533 in Nuremberg by Johann Petri. It contains the earliest statement of the cosine law for spherical triangles, stating the proportionality of the sides of a plane triangle to the sines of the opposite angle. This fundamental proposition of spherical trigonometry appears as theorem 2 in book V of the treatise. In the second part, Regiomontanus proves the errors of Nicolaus de Cusa s theory of squaring the circle, which had a profound effect on the history of navigation. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  The first systematic treatise on plane and spheric trigonometry to be published in Europe. Although it drew heavily on Arabic sources, those earlier treatises had been either lost or forgotten by 1533 when Regiomontanuss work was first printed. Among the notable contents of this work are the sine law and perhaps the first European application of algebra to trigonometry. Indeed with De triangulis trigonometry was established as an independent discipline. Regiomontanus  original purpose, however, had been to furnish astronomers with a mathematical technique essential for their studies, and in this De triangulis had a success perhaps greater than its author could have dreamed of. For in 1539 Georg Joachim Rheticus presented a copy of the work s 1533 edition as a gift to Copernicus. The great astronomer had already written the trigonometrically-based portion of his De Revolutionibus without knowledge of his predecessor s treatise. After reading the new book, Copernicus modified the presentation of several of his own indispensable theorems by inserting two leaves in the manuscript of the De Revolutionibus. Hence, Rheticus  remark that Regiomontanus began the reconstruction of astronomy that Copernicus completed takes on a fuller meaning  Rose,  The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics,   This edition is enlarged with by two early complementary treatises the  Tabula sinuum ad 6000000 partes per I. de Regiomonte computata  and the  Tractatus super propositiones Ptolemaei de sinubus et chordis  by Peurbach. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The second work in this volume is the first appearance of an expanded treatise by Santbech on astronomy. It deals with instruments for astronomical observation, and details various methods of measurement using Regiomontanus  work on triangles, described in the first work. It is interesting for its post Copernican perspective, who is cited in the work. Thomas Digges also cites the work in his  An Arithmeticall Militarie Treatise ; see Military Books, p. 23. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very good copy from the extraordinary scientific library of the Earls of Macclesfield.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"REGIOMONTANUS, Iohannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816168989007,"sku":"L3088","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6668-scaled.jpg?v=1781794859"},{"product_id":"botero-giovanni","title":"BOTERO, Giovanni","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome, superbly illustrated copy of the enlarged edition in seven parts the first illustrated with woodcuts of exotic wonders of this most successful descriptive geography of the world. Educated at the Jesuit college in Palermo and Rome, Giovanni Botero (1544-1617) was a poet and political theorist. In the 1590s, at the service of Cardinal Borromeo, he wrote his  Relationi universali , describing Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and their islands; the princes and kingdoms of the world; world religions; the  superstitions  and evangelisation of the New World; the wonders of the Indies; European wars and famous captains. The 32 impressive woodcuts by Alessandro de Vecchi were here published for the first time, as an addition to Part 4, which  could also be a stand-alone work  (Vinciana 1090). They translated exotic wonders traditionally found in Africa and Asia into the New World. De Vecchi s figures  to the life  were probably inspired by C16 illustrated German books; some resemble the wonders portrayed in the Nuremberg Chronicle (e.g., a creature with a wolf s and human head and the sciopod). Also, like some of these works, Botero described  cynocaephali  (dog-headed men) as cannibals from the Indies (Feest, ed.,  Indians and Europe , 20). The realistic portrayals of the natives, among the earliest, were recut after those in a long woodcut of the procession of King of Cochin by Hans Burgkmair, printed in 1508-11. Unable to become an active missionary after being expelled from the Jesuits, Botero composed this work to assist the Church in fighting heresy around the world. It was a collection of texts on the geography and history of the four Continents with most up-to-date information on Asia based on accounts by travellers and Jesuit missionaries. Thanks to its numerous editions and translations, it quickly became  a standard work of reference both Protestant and Catholic  (Symcox,  On the Causes , xiii). Cardinal Borromeo, to whom the third part is dedicated, made ample use of the information on the Americas; in particular, Botero examined the regions of Norumberga (of legendary status), Florida, the Mexican Gulf, Mexico and South America down to Magellanica by the Antarctic Pole. He also discussed the excavation of a canal to link the two oceans through Nicaragua first planned by the early  conquistadores . A masterpiece of Renaissance political geography.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOTERO, Giovanni","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816169349455,"sku":"K126","price":32500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190406_165022.jpg?v=1781794858"},{"product_id":"clerck-nicolaes-de","title":"CLERCK, Nicolaes de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fascinating history of the most important princes (including two from the New World), noblemen and heroes (mostly explorers and navigators) of Christianity, beautifully illustrated with numerous engraved portraits, here in fine impression. The Flemish Nicolaes de Clerck (fl. 1599-25), printer in Delft, specialised in engravings from plates designed and engraved by skilled artists like Jacques de Gheyn the Younger. He also himself produced maps and dozens of portraits of political figures for historical publications ( Drawing , 191). In 1600, he was rewarded financially for  having dedicated and presented to the States General the depictions of the genealogy of the illustrious house of Nassau and the feats of war  (Klinkert,  Information , 62). Each section of  Tooneel  begins with a textual genealogy, focusing at length on major figures, depicted in handsome portraits. These include Cesare Borgia, Alessandro Farnese, William of Orange, Cosimo I de  Medici, Gaston de Foix, Edward Prince of Wales and Philip the Good. The portraits (and biographies) of the Americana section were drawn from Andr é Thevet s famous  Les vrais pourtraits et vies des hommes illustres  (1584). These include Montezuma, King of Mexico, Atahualpa, King of Peru, Hern‚àö¬∞n Cort és, Francisco Pizzarro, Ferdinando Magellano and Amerigo Vespucci (this last filed in the section of de  Medici, his patrons). Thevet s  Les vrais pourtraits  was hitherto the closest attempt to replicate a faithful image of New World figures. Montezuma was the only prince whose image Thevet had not managed to acquire, so he used as a source the Aztec  Codex Mendoza  (c.1529-33); nobody was allowed to look at the king, though Cort és had described him in a letter to Charles V. For Atahualpa, Thevet used an image from his personal collection; no native portrait has survived (Hajovsky,  Andr é Thevet , 335). An unexpected Americanum, with fresh illustrations in the Netherlandish style.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CLERCK, Nicolaes de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820341240143,"sku":"L3137","price":2450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_8475-scaled.jpg?v=1781794844"},{"product_id":"bg-mazzella-scipione-with-de-bry-theodor","title":"BG. [Mazzella Scipione.] [with] DE BRY, Theodor.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe beautifully illustrated, rare and important eleventh vol of Theodor De Bry s Small voyages containing three important travel accounts including the relation of Vespucci s third and fourth voyage to America, in a stunning, finely preserved, contemporary morocco binding from the library of James I, very much in the style of Bateman. The first part contains all the plates from Mazella s history of the kings of Naples. The Small Voyages were printed in a total of 13 parts and an Appendix, at Frankfurt from 1597 to 1633; this is the sole Latin edition of part eleven of the Small voyages. This eleventh part contains three narratives: 1) [p. 5-10] The relations of the third and fourth voyages of Vespuccius to America, in 1501 and 1503; it is a reprint of selections of the author s: Mundus novus, first printed under title: Albericus Vespuccius Laurentio Petri Francisci de Medicis salutem plurimam dicit Amerigo Vespucci, Paris, 1503 but generally known as: Mundus novus. 2) [p. 11-46] An account of Robert Coverte s travels by land through Persia and Mongolia [here, Church is incorrect. Instead of Mongolia, it is the Mogul Empire], after his shipwreck off Surat. This relation was first printed in English, at London in 1612; it is a translation of  A true and almost incredible report of an Englishman, that (being cast away in the good ship called the Assention in Cambaya the farthest part of the East Indies) trauelled by land through many vnknowne kingdomes, and great cities, by Robert Coverte, first printed London, 1612  3) [p. 47-62] A geographical description of Spitzbergen and a refutation of the claims of the English to the northern whale fisheries, with the journal of the voyage of Willem Barentsz and Jan Corneliszoon Rijp, in 1596, Cf. Church. It is a translation of: Histoire du Pays nomm é Spisberghe collected and edited by Hessel Gerritsz, printed in Amsterdam, 1613, which is, in turn, a translation of selections of his: Descriptio ac delineatio geographica detectonis freti; sive Transitus ad occasum, supra terras Americanas, in Chinam atque Japonem ducturi, recens investigati ab M. Henrico Hudsono Anglo, first printed in Amsterdam, 1612. There are two states of the title page: in the first one, the vignette has two natives and a centre engraved portrait of Olivier van Noort, with two map hemispheres; the other has a native woman on the left with her child and a native man on the right with two ships in the centre. This copy contains the rare Plate VII, of a woman being carried in state to be burned with the body of her husband. This is often replaced by the plate, in which a woman is represented as throwing herself into the funeral pyre of her husband, used as plate IX.  JCB. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  The language of Vespucci s first public letter is compatible with the idea of a  new world  under and subordinate to the known configuration of lands. But in his second published letter Vespucci treats the southern and northern parts of the area he and Columbus explored as a single continent that is not Asia. This was a stunning breakthrough in the state of knowledge, one Columbus never achieved  Wills, Letters from a New World. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This marvellous copy, with two works of particular interest to the English, comes from the library of James I (1566-1625), the first and probably the most learned  King of Great Britain  as ruler of both Scotland and England.  He studied Greek, French, and Latin and made good use of a library of classical and religious writings that his tutors, George Buchanan and Peter Young, assembled for him. James s education aroused in him literary ambitions rarely found in princes but which also tended to make him a pedant.  EBO. His numerous books were often customised with his arms by the royal binder, John Bateman, who employed various style, material and techniques (M. Foot, The Henry Davids Gift, I, pp. 38-49, 52). This copy is of exceptional quality even within Bateman s refined and wide-ranging output.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BG. [Mazzella Scipione.] [with] DE BRY, Theodor.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820341961039,"sku":"L2228","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-42_d5a4bb79-5a04-48bd-8311-0188ce5fe46a.jpg?v=1781794842"},{"product_id":"brant-sebastian","title":"BRANT, Sebastian.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA landmark of early printing, with superb woodcut illustrations partly attributed to the young D√ºrer, as well as with early references to Columbus s discoveries and, for the first time in this first enlarged Latin edition, a poem on the Ottoman threat. A German humanist from Strasbourg, Sebastian Brant (1458-1521) completed his studies at Basel. There, until 1500, he published his major works, the most renowned of which,  Das Narrenschiff , in 1494. The humanist Jakob Locher translated it into Latin as  Stultifera navis  in March 1497, adding four woodcuts and in this fifth and first enlarged Latin edition also a new poem by Brant,  De pereuntibus .  Stultifera navis  is a powerful satirical poem.  In a ship laden with one hundred fools, steered by fools to the fools  paradise of Narragonia, Brant satirizes all the weaknesses, follies and vices of his time. Composed in popular humorous verse and illustrated by a remarkable series of woodcuts of which 75 are now attributed to the young D√ºrer the book was an immediate success  (PMM 37). The nautical theme was probably strengthened under the influence of contemporary debates on voyages of exploration and the vanity of seeking knowledge of God s creation. Most famous is the chapter on the  inquisition of geographical regions , or the foolishness of those who want to measure the earth, illustrated by a fool s-capped figure holding a compass. It also mentions Columbus s recent discoveries, which had first appeared in print in his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella of 1493, reprinted by Bergmann, Brant s Basel publisher, in 1494. The verse states that Ptolemy, Pliny and Varro were all wrong, and the  terra  that was previously  incognita  was now revealed; these Western Hesperides now belonged to King Ferdinand. Brant s new and final poem,  De pereuntibus , deals with the Ottoman threat, and bears a separate t-p with figures engaged in foolish activities and a diagrammatic horoscope. After foreseeing a nefarious planetary conjunction on 2 October 1503, he bemoans the dangers in which Christianity has been cast by the Turks   irruptio  and argues for the support of the Emperor Maximilian in his fight against them. A lavishly illustrated important work and a fascinating edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRANT, Sebastian.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820342419791,"sku":"K168","price":32500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K168-3.jpg?v=1781794838"},{"product_id":"boissard-jean-jacques","title":"BOISSARD, Jean-Jacques","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition, with part 5 in its most complete variant, of one of the most beautifully illustrated surveys of Roman antiquities. Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602) was a French Neo-Latin poet and prominent antiquarian. He had an adventurous life, fleeing from the seminary where we was training, travelling throughout Germany, Italy and Greece and eventually embracing Protestantism. A passionate collector of antiquities despite his little financial means, he compiled a detailed account of his numerous visits to archaeological sites and private houses. The Romanae Urbis topographia was his most successful work, largely because of the refined plates engraved by Theodor de Bry (1528-1598 ), the renowned artist responsible, i. a., for a series of illustrations of early expeditions to the Americas and Asia. Bry s engraved self-portrait appears here at the beginning of the first four parts along with Boissard s. The extraordinary set of illustrations mainly pertains to the Roman antiquities which were scattered in every corner of the Eternal City at the end of the sixteenth century. The book, published in six parts between 1597 and 1602, also provides important evidence of contemporary art collecting in Rome, presenting pieces owned by Pope Julius III, Angelo Colocci and the cardinals Carpi, Farnese, Salviati and Cesi. In part 6, one can find antiquities from Egypt and Greece, while the magnificent engraved title in part 4, with a skeleton popping up out of a sarcophagus and showing an hourglass to a kneeling cardinal, is an effective memento mori. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This marvellous copy comes from the library of James I (1566-1625), the first and probably the most learned  King of Great Britain  as ruler of both Scotland and England.  He studied Greek, French, and Latin and made good use of a library of classical and religious writings that his tutors, George Buchanan and Peter Young, assembled for him. James s education aroused in him literary ambitions rarely found in princes but which also tended to make him a pedant.  EBO. His numerous books were often customised with his arms by the royal binder, John Bateman, who employed various style, material and techniques (M. Foot, The Henry Davids Gift, I, pp. 38-49, 52). These two volumes, however, appears to be exceptional even within Bateman s refined and wide-ranging output.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOISSARD, Jean-Jacques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820343894351,"sku":"K87","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7545.jpg?v=1781794827"},{"product_id":"paulinus-laurentius","title":"PAULINUS, Laurentius.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of the first edition of  the first extended, comprehensive history of Sweden  ( Nordisk , 906) and  the most ambitious piece of [Swedish] historiography  of the C17 (Kalevich,  Compilation , 6). Laurentius Paulinus Gothus (1565-1646) was Archbishop of Strengnes, Sweden. In 1622, he promoted the establishment of the first printing press of the town, with the financial assistance of King Gustavus Adolphus. The present is one of the most famous outputs of this provincial press (Cotton,  Gazetteer , 272).  Historia  provides an account spanning the Creation, as most C16 national histories, to the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632; it also includes a geographical survey of Sweden and a summary of the most important historical events. Whilst Paulinus did not engage in fresh archival research, he produced a major compilation of all available sources, especially Olaus Magnus. The account of early history includes astronomical observations and criticism of astrological forecasts, as well as the first migrations to Sweden after the Flood. It is followed by a description of Swedish territories, including Lapland, and of Finland, Norway, Livonia, Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark and even Muscovy; it then focuses on Sweden, discussing its politics (to Gustavus Adolphus), religion (especially the extirpation of paganism), customs and laws. The second section follows the chronology of Swedish kings from before the Flood to 1492. The catalogue of the  Bibliotheca Heberiana  (1835, n.3320) states that copy was  very scarce, with the suppressed leaves , pointing the reader to  Lord Strangford s note  on the subject. Percy Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford (1780-1820) was ambassador to Sweden in 1817-20. We have not been able to identify this note or discover anything about suppression; it may concern i 4 which is cancelled.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PAULINUS, Laurentius.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346351951,"sku":"L3334","price":2650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9368.jpg?v=1781794812"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-20_at_3.21.09_PM.png?v=1781965285","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/travel-geography.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}