: Philadelphia Rare Books

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NUMISMATICS

Great Museum Now Lost — Full Description & 171 Plates

Buonanni, Filippo. Musaeum Kircherianum, sive, Musaeum a P. Athanasio Kirchero in Collegio romano Societatis Jesu, iam pridem incoeptum nuper restitutum, auctum, descriptum, & iconibus illustratum. Romae: typis Georgii Plachi, 1709. Folio extra. [6] ff., 522 [i.e., 399], [1 (blank)] pp., [4] ff., engr. port., 171 plates.
[SOLD]

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• Polymath extraordinaire Athanisus Kircher (1601–80) established a highly personal museum in Rome. It ranked as an equal among such contemporaries as the Calzolari, the Cospi, Elias Ashmole's, and the Ole Worm, all amazing Baroque creations.

Kircher's position in the Jesuit order placed him in an excellent situation to use the Jesuit missionaries to bring him oddities and rarities from around the world and because he had so much from so many places, there was much to appeal to a wide variety of scholars and visitors. Unfortunately, like the Ashmolean his treasure house soon fell into decline and neglect.

Filippo Buonanni (1638–1725) took it on to restore the Kircherianum and this book is a monument to that effort. It describes in words and 171 engravings what was to be found in the awesome and astounding collection. Natural history and and antiquities are strongly represented (e.g., the final 48 plates are of shells!), but on pages 309–10 we learn of “Instrumenta musica, et authomata diversa.”

numismatists revel in the discussions of Kircher's coins

• Nissen, ZBI, 2198; Cobres I, p. 106; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 381–382; Cicognara 3372; Honeyman Sale 550. Recent full brown calf by Grace Bindings (signed in blind “GB” on the lower rear turn-in) appropriately tooled in gold in the style of the era. Raised bands, gilt center devices in spine compartments. Marbled endpapers. Ex-library (properly deaccessioned) with all plates stamped on the verso (occasional light show through). A clean, handsome copy of an infinitely absorbing book. (21561)

Arabic — Armenian — Antiochus

Hamaker, Hendrik Arent. Specimen catalogi codicum mss. orientalium bibliothecae Academiae Lugduno-Batavae ... [bound with two other works as described below]. Lugduni Batavorum: Apud S. & J. Luchtmans, 1820. 4to (24.5 cm, 9.7"). [4], viii, 264, [4] pp. [bound with] Chahan de Cirbied, Jacques M. Notice de deux manuscrits Arméniens contenant l'histoire de Mathieu Eretz ... Paris: De l'imprimerie Impériale, 1812. 4to. 92 pp. [and] Tôchon d'Annecy, Joseph-François . Dissertation sur l'époque de la mort d'Antiochus VII évergètes sidétès, roi de Syrie, sur deux médailles antiques de ce prince ... Paris: L.G. Michaud, 1815. 4to. Frontis., 68 pp.
$1250.00

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• First edition of this catalogue of Arabic manuscripts held by the university at Leiden, annotated by Hamaker; the text is printed in Latin and Arabic. That work is followed by one on ancient Armenian manuscripts and another on the last era of Antiochus Sidetes with reference both to numismatic and Biblical sources; these are also in their first editions.

A “Learned & Curious” Work — Illustrated

Lanzi, Luigi. Saggio di lingua Etrusca e di altre antiche d’Italia per servire alla storia de’popoli, delle lingue e delle belle arti ... edizione seconda. Firenze: Tipografia di Attilio Tofani, 1824. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., xxviii, [2], 357, [1] pp.; 4 plts. II: xv, [1], 496 pp.; 10 plts. III: xi, [497]–772, xliv, [4], 94, [2] pp.; 4 plts.
$675.00

ouvrage savant et curieux

Storia pittorica della Italia

Catholic Encyclopedia

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The three volumes are illustrated with18 copper-etched plates, some signed by Tommaso Nasi, depicting inscriptions, coins and medallions, and other antiquities.

Binding: Contemporary vellum, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels.

• Brunet, III, 827; Cicognara 2595; DeBacker-Sommervogel, IV, 1501. Bindings show only very minor signs of wear overall, some light speckling to spines and small spots of discoloration to two front covers, two volumes with lower corners bumped, two spine labels with small scuffs. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), vol. I with small early inked name on front pastedown. One leaf with small hole affecting five letters. A few leaves very lightly age-toned, some plates in vol. II and first and last few leaves of each volume faintly foxed, otherwise clean. An attractive set.

Pirated Pensées

Valois, Adrien de. Valesiana ou les pensées critiques, historiques et morales, et les poesies latines .... Paris: Chez Florentin & Pierre Delaulne, 1695. 12mo (15.5 cm, 6.2"). Frontis., [30], 234, [10], 88 pp.; 2 fold. plts.
$250.00

The collection was edited by the author’s son, numismatist Charles de Valois.

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The present example is a fictitious imprint, printed in Amsterdam and counterfeiting the Parisian edition of the same year (actual place of printing from NUC Pre-1956 628:472, cf. E. Weller, Die falschen und fingierten Druckorte, II, 57). The volume’s two folding, engraved plates (unsigned) depict antiquarian coins and medals, while the mythologically inspired frontispiece includes a portrait of de Valois.

• Later half sheep with speckled paper–covered boards, rebacked with speckled calf preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides and edges scuffed, with leather chipped at corners. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate, partially chipped; preface with numeral inked in lower margin. Pages crisp and clean. All edges stained red.

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