
PERSIA
[
]
PERSIA in
10 Volumes & 79 Plates
(A Substantial Production)! Chardin, John. Voyages de Mr. le chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Paris: André Cailleau, 1723. 8vo (16.5 cm, 6.5"). 10 vols. I: Frontis., [10], 254 pp.; 1 fold. map. II: 334 pp.; 4 fold. plts., 5 plts. III: 285, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 fold. plts., 3 plts. IV: 280 pp.; 2 fold. plts., 3 plts. V: 312 pp.; 4 fold. tables, 5 plts. VI: 328 pp.; 4 plts. VII: [10], 15448 [i.e., 446] pp. VIII: 255, [1 (blank)] pp.; 10 fold. plts., 6 plts. IX: 308 pp.; 1 double-spread fold. plt., 8 fold. plts., 19 plts. X: [22], 3220, [82 (index)] pp.
$4000.00
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Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, “un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés” in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture. The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.
Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work. (19664)
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Grammars & Language Studies
Alting, Jacob. Jacobi Altingi ... Fundamenta punctationis linguae sanctae, cum necessariis canonum, locorum S. Scripturae & vocum irregularium indicibus. Francofurti ad Moenum: Sumptibus viduae beati Knochii et J.G. Eslingeri, 1746. 8vo (18 cm; 7.25"). 3 parts in 1 vol. I: [8] ff., 385, [1] pp., [3] ff., [1], 7 pp. [30], [24] ff. II: [2] ff., 122 pp. III: [8] ff., 31, [1], 32, 88, 57–176 pp.
$325.00
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A marvelous volume containing studies or grammars of Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Ethopic, and Samaritan languages: “Editio nona. Simili Institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum synopsi, a Georgio Othone ... auctior.” The two authors, Atling (1618–1679) and Georg Otho (1634–1713), were respectively a Dutch philologist, theologian, and professor at the University of Groningen; and a German librarian and professor of oriental languages.
The volume has divisional title-pages for “Jacobi Altingi Synopsis institutionum Chaldaearum et Syrarcum” dated 1747; and “Georgii Othonis ... Synopsis institutionum Samaritanarum, Rabbinicarum, Arabicarum, Aethiopicarum et Persicarum,” dated 1735.
This edition not in VD18. Modern light brown paper-covered boards with paper spine label. Ex-library with faint blind-pressure stamp on title- and one other leaf and librarian's pencil notations on verso of title-page. Scattered foxing, occasional stray stain. Overall a good, solid, clean copy. (33597)
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Illustrated Record of the
1931 International Exhibition
of Persian Art
Binyon, Laurence; J.V.S. Wilkinson; & Basil Gray. Persian miniature painting. London: Oxford University Press, 1933. Folio (39.37 cm, 15.5"). Col. frontis., xiv, 212, [2] pp.; 113 plts. (15 col.).
$750.00
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First edition. Including a “critical and descriptive catalogue of the miniatures exhibited at Burlington House January – March, 1931,” this hefty, very much “oversize” volume provides thorough documentation of the exhibition itself, along with extensive information on the history and aesthetics of Persian painting. The work, which one reviewer notes “immediately became the standard monographic introduction to the material” (Roxburgh, Art Bulletin, vol. XCV, no. 4), is printed on good paper and is illustrated with a
color-printed frontispiece and 113 plates, 15 of which are in color.
Publisher's ochre cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and medallion, in original tan dust jacket; jacket spine and edges chipped but by no means tattered, with volume corners bumped. Foxing to endpapers (only); pages and plates clean.
A significant work, here in the first edition in the uncommon dust jacket. (41400)

Contemporary Account of the
Battle of Avarayr
Eghishe, Saint. The history of Vartan, and of the battle of the Armenians: Containing an account of the religious wars between the Persians and Armenians. London: Pr. for the Oriental Translation Fund (by J.L. Cox), 1830. 4to (27 cm, 10.6"). xxiv, 111, [5] pp.
$700.00
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First English-language edition, translated from the Armenian by Karl Friedrich Neumann, with extensive footnotes. The work is here attributed to “Elisæus, bishop of the Amadunians,” a.k.a. Saint Eghishe Vardapet (d. 480), one of the fathers of the Armenian Church. Eghishe had served as secretary to General Vartan prior to the great battle in 451 in which the Persians attempted to forcibly reconvert the Armenians from Christianity to Mazdeism, a battle which ended in Vartan's death but is remembered as one of the defining moments of Armenian history.
Graesse 467; NSTC 2E6790. Period-style quarter brown cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Intermittent small pencilled marks of emphasis, pages otherwise clean. All edges stained red. (24872)
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A QUITE
Luxurious & Useful Production
Jacquemart, Albert. Histoire de la céramique. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1873. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.43"). [2] ff., 750, [2] pp. 12 pls.
$425.00
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Canvassing ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance and modern times, this monograph on ceramic art distinguishes classes and styles of pottery, is illustrated with
200 wood-engraved figures by Hercule Catenacci and Jules Jacquemart, bears
12 full-page engraved plates by the latter, and tells how to identify many works' makers, cataloguing
1,000 marks and monograms. Each full-page plate is protected by a guard sheet with a brief letterpress description.
Jules Jacquemart (1837–80) was but in his mid-twenties when he began drawing from the renowned art collection of his father, Albert, an art historian. The Jacquemarts' first book on the subject was the Histoire de la porcelaine, followed shortly by this, its companion, in 1873, when Jules was “at work again on his own best work of etching.” He also made the etchings for Techener's Histoire de la bibliophilie (1860–64) and, in 1864, received an important commission from the French crown for Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne (1865).
The monograph's original
color-painted beaux-arts wrappers are bound in at the front and back here, including the spine in front (rubbed and faded, hinting at original splendor). The title-page is printed in red and black. An extensive index appears at the end.
Binding: Three-quarter evergreen morocco bordered with gilt fillets over bubble gum and mint marbled paper boards; spine with raised bands, gilt-framed compartments containing author, title, date, and appropriate devices in gilt; endpapers matching marbled boards and top edge gilt.
For J. Jacquemart, see: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX, pp. 681–90. Leather lightly scuffed at extremities and sunned to a woody green on spine and upper front cover; offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers. Mild to (occasionally) moderate foxing throughout and old water damage on a few leaves only. (30132)
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“Un Missionnaire Doit Être un Excellent Voyageur”
Jesuits. Nouvelles des missions, extraites des Lettres edifiantes et curieuses. Paris: Societé catholique des bons livres, 1827. 12mo (16.9 cm, 6.68"). 2 vols. I: vii, [3], 214 pp. II: [4], 243, [3] pp.
$350.00
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The first volume here opens with an impassioned defense of the overall interest and significance of the Lettres édifiantes, 34 volumes of correspondence from non-European Jesuit missions reporting back to Rome, originally published from 1702 to 1776. While there was obviously much therein on the condition of the various missions and missionaries and their conversion activities, the writers also addressed social and political conditions and events, as well as occasionally writing detailed descriptions of natural history. The present two volumes, an early 19th-century abridgement, offer some of the
highlights of letters from the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas (Constantinople, Armenia, Persia, Syria, Tripoli, Jerusalem and the Holy
Land, in the first volume; various parts of Canada, California, Santo Domingo, and Guyana in the second).
This ed. not in Sabin; see 40697 for main entry. Contemporary paper in tree calf pattern, spines with gilt-stamped red leather title-labels; rubbed overall. All edges stained yellow. Front free endpapers each with small 19th-century library paper shelving label. Occasional small spots of staining or foxing, pages generally clean. (40086)
Ancient Dress. 51 Copper-Engraved Plates.
Lens, André Corneille. Le costume ou essai sur les habillements et les usages de plusieurs peuples de l’antiquité, prouvé par les monuments. Liege: Aux dépens de l’auteur, chez J.F. Bassompierre, 1776. 4to (24.9 cm, 9.8"). xxxi, [1], 411, [1] pp.; 51 plts
$1750.00
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First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).
Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin. (19415)
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Grynaeus's Edition Three Maps
Justinus, Marcus Junianus; & Pompeius Trogus. Justini ex Trogo Pompeio historia diligentissime nunc quidem supra omnes omnium hactenus aeditiones recognita, et ab innumeris mendis - vetusti exemplaris beneficio purgata. Huic accessit commentariolus. Basilae: apud Michaelem Isingrinium, 1539. Small 4to. [16] ff., 319, [1 (blank)] pp.
$2875.00
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Justinus (3rd century A.D.) is known solely by his Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV, which he describes in his preface as a collection of the most important and interesting passages from the voluminous, but now lost, Historiae pillippicae et totius mundi origines et terrae situs, that Pompeius Trogus wrote during the era of Augustus.
This very nice Renaissance edition was edited and has a preface by Simon Grynaeus. In addition to the text, there are an extensive index, four full-page woodcut maps of parts of the ancient world, and Grynaeus's extensive commentary. The main text is printed in roman with a good scattering of woodcut historiated initials and is accompanied on the same page by Grynaeus commentary and notes in a smaller italic. His preface is printed in a larger italic face.
Evidence of Readership: This copy has interesting, early, but now somewhat faded marginalia in a red or sepia ink. The marginalia is scattered and is at times heavy, other times light; in some sections, it is non-existent.
VD16 T2056. Full rich brown calf old style: Round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt rule; author and title lettered on cream-colored spine label; fillets in blind extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Small rent in upper inner area of title-page with a very old and good repair on verso. Library name stamped on lower edge of closed book. (24808)
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FIRST BIBLIOGRAPHY of
AMERICANA (PLUS)
León Pinelo, Antonio de. Epítome de la bibliotheca oriental, y occidental, nautica, y geográfica ... Añadido y enmendado nuevamente en que se contienen los escritores de las Indias orientales, y occidentales, y reinos convecinos China, Tartaria, Japón,
Persia, Armenia, Etiopia y otras partes. Madrid: En la oficina de Francisco Martinez Abad, 1737–38. Folio (30 cm; 11.75"). 3 vols. I: [71], [135], [27] ff. II: [221] ff. III: 202 pp.
$9000.00
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Antonio de León Pinelo (1589–1660) was a Spanish-colonial historian. Born in Cordova de Tucuman and educated at the Jesuit college of Lima, he left the New World for Spain in 1612 and there enjoyed a highly successful career, becoming attorney of the Council of the Indies and later a judge in the Casa de Contratacion in Seville.
His Epitome was originally published in Madrid in 1629 and is here in the second edition as
enlarged and annotated by Andres Gonzalez de Barcia: It was the first bibliography for the field of Americana and to this day
it remains an important source for scholars and collectors of the colonial era of the New World for its wealth of bibliographic data and most especially information about manuscripts.
Rich says of this edition that it is, “The most complete general bibliography of geographical works, travels, missionary reports, etc.” And LeClerc echoes him: “ouvrage extremement important pour la bibliographie americaine.”
The work is handsomely printed (although erratic in its pagination and signature markings), in double-column format, featuring title-pages in black and red with an engaging small engraved vignette of a ship between pillars reading “Plus” and “Ultra.”
Provenance: Ownership stamp of Carlos Sanz in several places.
Sabin 40053; Palau 135738; Alden & Landis 737/135; Medina, BHA, 3071; Borba de Moraes, II, 150; LeClerc 872. Contemporary vellum over pasteboards, a little soiled especially to spnes, retaining button and loop closures; hinges (inside) open in a few places but bindings strong. Occasional waterstain or other sign of exposure to dampness; a few gutter margins (only) of first volume with a short wormtrack; some cockling of paper. (34810)
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A Good BAV Title — Macclesfield Provenance
Mela, Pomponius. Pomponii Melae De orbis situ libri tres, accuratissime eme[n]dati. Lutetiae Parisiorum: [Chrétien Wechel], 1530. Folio (34 cm; 13.25"). [14] ff., 196 p., [1] f., [28] ff. (without the fold. map, if one was actually issued with it).
$1450.00
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Mela's work De orbis situ libri tres (a.k.a., De chorographia) is, of course, a standard and famous work of ancient geography and, dating from the first century A.D., is the oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin. It enjoyed readership for centuries in manuscript and was first printed in 1471 with eight subsequent incunable editions, while in the 16th century to 1530 there was virtually a new edition every other year: Clearly, it was
a book of interest and importance for the Renaissance.
It is a short work; the Petit printing of it in 1513, for example, occupies only 60 pages. In this edition, however, Mela's text (printed in roman) is surrounded by
extensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus (1484–1551), thus extending the whole to 196 pages. The volume ends with an appendix, “Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata,” consisting of Vadian's study of Mela's work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it.
Printer Wechel has arrayed the commentary around the text here with
notable attractiveness, he has supplied quite a number and variety of attractive initials, and both his main title-page and the sectional one for the “Loca aliquot” are dramatically presented with the same
elaborate multipart woodcut title border.
Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discusses
Vespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.
This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”
Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.
Provenance: Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.
Evidence of readership: Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.
Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not calling for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map). 18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above.
A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio. (34114)
Die Religion des
Zoroaster
Olshausen, Justus, ed.; Johann August Vullers. Fragmente ueber die religion des Zoroaster, aus dem persischen uebersetzt und mit einem ausfuehrlichen commentar versehen nebst dem leben des Ferdusi aus Dauletscha'hs biographieen der dichter, von Johann August Vullers, mit einem vorworte von Windischmann. Bonn: verlag von T. Habicht, 1831. 8vo. xxxii, 130, 14 p.
$475.00
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Contains the Persian text of Daulat Shah Alai Samarkandi and the translation of the texts as edited by Justus Olshausen and Julius Mohl. An important text on the lasting influence of Zoroaster and
with the life of the great poet Ferdusi (i.e., f Abu-'l Kasim Mansur).
19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper; abraded. Paper author/title label on spine, call number label on front cover. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and call number in pencil on verso of title-page. No other markings. (19137)
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