Alphabet books & printsThere are 5 items
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Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, durch Albrecht Dürer zu samen getzogen, und zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden mit zu gehörigen figuren, in truck gebracht, im jar. M.D.XXV
Nuremberg, [Hieronymus Andreae, called Hieronymus Formschneider?], 1525First edition (first state) of “Instruction in measurement with compass and ruler”, the first of the three theoretical treatises published by Dürer towards the end of his life, one of the earliest mathematical works published in the German vernacular, and among the most beautiful printed books of the German Renaissance.
Bound with Pélerin, Jean, called Viator. De artificiali p[er]spectiva. Toul, Pierre Jacobi, 9 July (i.e. 23 June) 1505
Bound with Vitruvius Pollio, Marcus. [De architectura libri decem] M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit. Venice, Joannes Tacuinus, 22 May 1511 -
A remarkable volume containing eight books of ornament and seven suites of prints, published at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Prague, and Strasbourg, between circa 1562 and 1605, together with three series of drawings executed by a single hand on related papers manufactured at Bern in Switzerland between 1601 and 1608. The paper used by the binder for the paste-downs also was made at Bern, circa 1601-1608, and it may be inferred that the volume was assembled and bound there, probably about 1605
[Bern], c. 1562-1605This highly interesting and well-preserved volume was compiled at Bern about 1605 to provide an architect or artisan with a convenient repertory of exempla for the ornamentation of architecture, sculpture, and metalwork. In it the owner assembled contemporary printed ornament and safe-guarded some drawings – probably his own – to ensure they were easily accessible whenever need for them arose.
At the time our volume was assembled, Daniel Heintz the Younger (1574-1633) was establishing himself as the pre-eminent architect of Bern. Heintz gave his library to his nephew, the architect, painter, and cartographer Joseph Plepp, and some books eventually passed into the Burgerbibliothek Bern. Mostly architectural treatises and compendia of ornament, those “Heintz-Plepp” volumes contain no marks of ownership, and are identifiable only through entries in the Library’s “Donationenbuch”. Several books are in Bernese bindings and for one (a Sammelband of models of Schweifwerk ornament) the binder employed a paper stock found in our volume. There is additional, circumstantial evidence that suggests Daniel II Heintz was the compiler-owner of our volume.
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The Devil's alphabet
[Lunenburg, Vermont], Stinehour Press, 1993(16.5 × 12 cm), [64] pp., illustrations. Printed in two colours. Original printed wrappers. - “This book has been designed and printed by Cosmo Barker at the Stinehour Press using a Heidelberg cylinder press and rag paper”. ¶ Copy numbered in pencil “8/67”. Very good copy. -
An antiquarian ABC
Berkeley, Ian Jackson & Ann Arnold, 1998(21.5 × 28 cm), [32] pp., illustrations. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - “The drawings of Eric Korn (the child on the front cover), Nicolas Barker (the figure on the left in G & H), Bernard Rosenthal (in O), Ian Jackson (the beggar in the gutter of X), and Alex Fotheringham (the horseman on the back cover) are based on sketches from life. The drawings of Albi and Felix Rosenthal (in P) rely on personal recollection, the picture of John Jenkins (in I) on public notoriety, and of W. Graham Arader III (in A), and Germaine Greer (in N) on the artist’s imagination. Historical figures (Quaritch, Tischendorf, Alexander II) are taken from authentic portraits. None of the other sketches of booksellers, collectors and librarians is intended to represent anyone in particular”. ¶ Presentation inscription by the author on upper cover, dated 1998. Good copy. -
Von der Kunst perspectiva und andere Kunsttraktate, Ornamentstichfolgen und Schriftmusterbücher der Renaissance und des Barock (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Bibliothek Otto Schäfer, Schweinfurt, 18 March-24 June 2001; Ausstellungskatalog 16)
Schweinfurt, Dr Otto-Schäfer Stiftung E.V., 2001(28 cm), 47 (1) pp., illustrations (some in colour). 38 catalogue entries. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - The earliest item is Jean Pélerin, dit Viator’s Von der Kunst Perspectiva (Nuremberg 1509); the latest is Abraham Bosse’s De la maniere de graver a l’eau forte et au burin (Paris 1745). Reviewed by Frédéric Barbier, in Revue française d’histoire du livre, 114-115 (2002), pp.231-233. ¶ Very good, unmarked copy.
