
16TH-CENTURY BOOKS
A-B C D-F G-H
I-Le Lf-M N-P R-S T-Z
Marriage Law from a
Noted
Mysogynist . . .
Nevizzano, Giovanni. Sylvae nuptialis libri sex: In quibus ex dictis moder. materia matrimonii, dotium, filiationis, adulterii, originis, successionis & monitorialium plenissimè discutitur: vnà cum remediis ad sedandum factiones Guelphorum & Giebelinorum. Item modus iudicandi & exequendi iussa principum. Ad haec, de authoritatibus
doctorum, priuilegiisque miserabilium personarum. Quae omnia ex quaestione, an nubendum sit, vel non, desumpta sunt. [Geneva?]: Ioannes Lertotius, 1592. 8vo. [32], 601, [5], pp.
$575.00

Legal treatise in civil (i.e., Roman) and canon law on marriage, family, and inheritance, “with remedies to settle the parties of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.” A good page-plus of the extensive small-print index references “mulieres” (most references being not too friendly); the work concludes with a 6-page poem.
Click the interior image for enlargement.
Not in Adams. Contemporary vellum with yapp edges and remnants of ties, spine with inked title: spots of staining, light soiling, and (on spine) traces of a paper label. Lightly age-toned with occasional light soiling. Early inked notations on front pastedown and title-page. Inked call number on title-page. (11869)
Osiander’s
Grund und Ursache
— RADICAL Lutheranism, 1524
[Osiander, Andreas]. Grundt vnd Vrsach...wie vnd warumb...die...Pröbst zu Nüremberg die Misspreüch bey der heiligen Mess...abgestelt vnterlassen vnd geendert haben. Nüremberg: [Gedruckt durch Hanz Hergott], 1524. 8vo (15 cm, 6"). A8 (A6, blank; -A7–8) B–F8 χ2 (=A7–8; χ2, blank); [5], [1 (blank)], [41], [1 (blank)] ff.
$5850.00

Convoluted language on the title-page is rendered clear at the beginning of the first chapter, where Andreas Osiander the elder (1498–1552), vicar of Saint Lawrence’s parish in Nüremberg at the time, explains why he and his colleagues have
“put an end to the Mass.” Written early in his career, this pamphlet appears to have made Osiander’s reputation as a prominent Lutheran reformer.
This is the rarer of two 1524 editions (we were able to trace only one copy in the U.S.), and it is listed by VD16 as the first. The other was printed in October of the same year by Hieronymus Höltzel, also of Nuremberg. More were printed the following year in Wittemberg, Leipzig, Augsburg, Zwickau, Erfurt, and later in Königsburg (ca. 1526) and Magdeburg (1545). This edition is printed in schwabacher with the title within a woodcut architectural border; a woodcut historiated initial is used twice.
Not in Adams. VD16 O1015; Soltész, Catalogus librorum sedecimo saeculo . . . in Bibliotheca Nationali Hungariae . . . , O176; Seebass, Bibliographia Oseandrica, 5.2. On Osiander, see: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 1014–15. Modern speckled paper wrappers. 19th-century elegant private library stamp, paper label with inked short title and remnants of another on title-page, small leather tab on the outer edge of leaf. A little tattering to title-page and top edge of F1 bumped; internally generally clean. Inked marginalia in an early hand: in German on the title- and last (blank) page and elsewhere in Latin, some letters shaved by the binder in a few places.
Parabosco, Girolamo. L’hermafrodito. Comedia... di nuovo ricorretta e ristampata. Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de’Ferrari, 1560. (13.5 cm, 5.25"). 48 ff. [bound with the same author’s] Il Marinaio. Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de’Ferrari, 1560. 59 ff. (lacking ff. 2 & 3, and final blank). [with] Il viluppo. Comedia nova....Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de’Ferrari, 1568. 59, [1] ff. [with] Il pellegrino. Vinegia: Gabriel Giolito de’Ferrari, 1560. 36 ff.
$600.00
Click
the righthand or middle image for an enlargement.
Collection of early editions of four comedies by composer and playwright Parabosco. Two other plays are cited by Brunet as part of the overall work, but are not present here; Adams and some other sources describe the six pieces as separately issued. The plays included in this volume are L’Hermafrodito, Il Marinaio, Il Viluppo (with a publication line dated 1568), and Il Pellegrino.
Adams P238, P239, P246 (1560 ed. only), P243; Brunet, IV, 356. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, spine with inked title; vellum slightly soiled, with spine title faded. All edges stained blue. First title-page mounted and several leaves with outer margins or upper outer corners reinforced, two pages with loss of a few letters at upper outer corners. Second play lacking two preliminary leaves and final register leaf. Two leaves with annotations in an early inked hand, now faded; pages with intermittent mild waterstaining.
Philoponus, Joannes Grammaticus. ... In Procli Diadochi duo de viginti argumenta De mundi aeternitate. Opus varia multiplicique philosophiae cognitione refertum. Lugduni: [colophon: Nicolaus Edoardus Campanus], 1557. Folio (33.5 cm, 13.15"). a–b4a–z6A–B6 (-B6); 295, [3 (blank)] pp. (lacking final blank f.)
$1700.00
Click the images above for enlargements.
Uncommon first edition of this translation: Neoplatonic philosophy, translated by Joannes Mahotius into Latin from the original Greek. Philoponus (ca. 490–570 a.d. ), also known as John of Alexandria or John the Grammarian, was an opponent of Aristotelian physics; the present item defends the tenets of Christian creationism against the arguments of Proclus, an Athenian Neoplatonist and Philoponus’s mentor.
Adams P1062; Brunet, III, 544. Contemporary vellum, darkened and worn, spine with later hand-inked paper labels; front joint starting from top and bottom, with vellum lost over lower outer corners, across spine bands, and over spine extremities. Front pastedown with (upside down!) bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked numerals and notations. Title-page stained and showing traces of old (arrested) mildew, with printer’s device partially hand-colored in pale yellow; verso of title-page with faint old library-style shelf number; in text, a few corners dog-eared. Waterstaining to upper and outer portions of first 18 ff. and in this section paper brittle with sewing going and some leaves separating. Final leaf (only) lacking (a blank). A compromised copy and priced accordingly, but, as noted, uncommon — and a bit less distressed than the enumeration of faults may suggest.
Pietro
dell’Aquila. Magister Petrus de Aquila...super quatuor libros magistri
Sententiarum. [colophon: Venetiis: Per Simonem de Luere, 1501]. 4to (22.5 cm,
8.875"). a–s8 t4 u–y8 ç8
[et]8 [con]8 [rum]8 A–F8; [8],
244 ff.
$3500.00

Peter of Aquila (1275–1361) was a Franciscan and bishop of
Angelo whose theological acumen earned him the title of doctor sufficiens,
the able doctor, while his devotion to Duns Scotus earned him the cognomen “Scotellus.”The
present work is a commentary on the sentences of Peter Lombard (ca. 1095–1160),
which present “the whole of Christian doctrine in one brief volume on
the basis of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Doctors”(NCE).

This handsome edition is printed in a round Italian gothic typeface of the
sort used for theological works. Guide letters have been printed for initials
(unaccomplished); the title-page gives the title above a poem in praise of
Peter of Aquila. A table of the questions precedes the text, and at the end
is a simply printed register and colophon, with a cipher SL as the printer’s
mark. The editio princeps of this work was published in 1480, and two
other incunable editions preceded this, the first 16th-century edition. This
edition is uncommon: we were able to trace
only three copies
in the U.S.
Binding:
Deep walnut full calf old style (showing lighter than it is, in our picture):
Round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices
in compartments, and with oxblood leather labels, gilt-lettered; fillets extending
onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in blind
double fillets.
Adams P876. On Peter of Aquila, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia,
XI, 210. On Peter Lombard, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, XI, 221–22.
Binding as above; library rubber-stamps, including on title- and last (blank)
page. Light waterstaining throughout. a1–8 with chipping or bumping
on corners, more obvious on the lower inner and outer corners, not touching
print. Title-page very lightly soiled with a few spots of staining. Two inked
ownership inscriptions on title-page; some terse marginalia; inked title on
fore-edge.

Printed
in Black & Red Woodcut Initials PLANTIN
LEAVES
(Plantin Press). Offered are a selection of very attractive leaves from a sadly incomplete and imperfectly identified Roman Missal printed at Christopher Plantin's press in Antwerp, circa 1570. All leaves are 8vo, measuring approximately 197 x 142 mm or 7 3/4" x 5 3/8" (h x w), and each page is printed in double-column format, in black ink with some words or lines in red; amount of printing in red varies from page to page.
Each leaf now available has a single woodcut historiated initial
measuring about 30 x 30 mm or 1 1/4" by 1 1/4", not colored or illuminated but
bordered and highlighted in red.
Each: $30.00
Available AT THIS WRITING, subject to prior sale: C (the Israelites gathering
manna), D (man kneeling in prayer, before a radiance), I, M (woman giving
alms), S, and V (the Ascension).
Each leaf is offered unmatted, in a museum-recommended and
-approved clear Mylar sleeve that will allow it to be enjoyed without worry
of soiling it with hand oils or dust.
PLACE
AN ORDER |
E-MAIL US |
PRB&M HOME