BiographyThere are 45 items
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Hystoria de vitis pontificum periucunda: diligenter recognita: & nunc tantum integre impressa
Venice, Filippo Pincio, 1504 (22 August)A new edition of the Vitae pontificum, Platina’s famous chronicle of the papacy through its 1500-year history (previously printed 1479, 1481, 1485), here united with his Contra amores (Against Love Affairs), a “misogynistic critique of women which had significant influence on later writers” (previously printed 1481), five unpublished minor works, and “Parentalia B. Platynae”, a collection by the author’s friend Pietro Demetrio Guazzelli of verse eulogies recited on 18 April 1482, at a memorial banquet in Platina’s former home, also unpublished. -
Vita et gesta Karoli Magni [edited by Hermann von Nuenar]
Cologne, Johannes Soter, 1521First printing of the earliest memoir of Charlemagne (742–814), written perhaps a decade after his death by a former courtier adopting the literary model of Suetonius’ Vita Augusti. The fine title-page illustration, depicting Charlemagne and Charles V together within a border charged with imperial insignia, and also the printer's device, and woodcut initials, were designed and cut by Anton Woensam von Worms (circa 1493/1500–1541).
Bound with San Giorgio, Benvenuto da, conte (1450–1527). De origine Guelphorum, et Gibellinorum. Basel, Andreas Cratander, [January 1519]
Bound with Buonaccorsi, Filippo, called Callimaco Esperiente (1437–1496). Historia de rege Vladislao, seu clade Varnensi. Augsburg, Sigismund Grimm & Marcus Wirsung, [30 May 1519]
Bound with Basse, Heinrich (fl. 1519) Panegiricos genealogiarum illustrium principum domiorum de Anholt. Leipzig, Wolfgang Stöckel, 1519 -
Wie vnd in wellicher gestalt Kay. May. Võ[n] Bruck auß gen Lunden in Engeland gezogen ankõm[m]en vnd Empfangen worden ist
[Augsburg], [Melchior Ramminger], [1522]A rare newsletter providing a day-to-day account of the visit of Charles V to London in June 1522, to confirm the recent alliance made between him and Henry VIII against Francis I of France. -
Tabula Palatinorum Heroldi: a woodcut genealogical tree for Friedrich II der Weise (1482-1556) and Ottheinrich (1502-1559), prince electors of the Palatinate
[Basel], Johann Oporinus, 1556This large format woodcut, printed on twenty-one sheets and when assembled (as here) measuring over four metres high, is a family tree of the Wittelsbach dynasty over 1000 years, beginning with the Merovingian King Clovis I (466-511), and culminating with the Elector Palatine Friedrich II (1482-1556) and his wife Dorothea of Denmark. Also shown are the Bavarian and Palatine branches of the house (from Charlemagne to Charles V) and the Electors of the Rhineland Palatinate. Altogether, 934 half-length portraits and coats of arms are depicted. The wood blocks are signed by six draughtsmen or cutters: Jacob Clauser, David Kandel, Zacharias Specklin, Ieremias Wyssenbach, and two unidentified artists, one signing with the monogram HS with a pen or brush, the other with the monogram C with a cross and pen or brush. -
Tabula Palatinorum Heroldi: a woodcut genealogical tree for Friedrich II der Weise (1482-1556) and Ottheinrich (1502-1559), prince electors of the Palatinate
Basel, Johann Oporinus, 1556A spectacularly well-preserved monumental multi-block woodcut, printed on twenty-two large sheets, which when properly assembled as seven tiers of three sheets each, with three emblematical woodcuts joined to make the top border, form a picture surface of roughly 5.42 m2 (height × width: 420.5 × 129 cm, 165 × 51 in). Since their publication in 1556 the sheets have been contained in albums and have not suffered from damage caused by rolling or wall-mounting like other known impressions. The print is a family tree of the Wittelsbach dynasty over 1000 years, beginning with the Merovingian King Clovis I (466-511), and culminating with the Elector Palatine Friedrich II (1482-1556), and features 934 half-length portraits and coats of arms. On three sides is an integral border of arabesque ornament with 82 bust-length medallion portraits of Roman and Byzantine emperors and Sultan Suleiman the Great, each cut on a black ground. The wood blocks are signed by six draughtsmen or cutters: Jacob Clauser, David Kandel, Zacharias Specklin, Ieremias Wyssenbach, and two unidentified artists, one signing with the monogram HS with a pen or brush, the other with the monogram C with a cross and pen or brush. The project was begun at the command of Pfalzgraf Friedrich II (died 1556) but only completed at the urgent command of his successor Ottheinrich. Johannes Herold, who was entrusted with the task, published a small explanatory booklet, of which a copy has been bound in. -
Wahrhafftige vnd in bewerten Historien wolgegründete Genealogia oder Stambaum des Hochlöblichen Vhralten Fürstlichen Hauses Braunschweig vnd Lüneburg
Wolfenbüttel, Conrad Horn, 1584This monumental woodcut printed by forty-two blocks on nineteen assembled sheets (dimensions overall 236 × 91 cm) is a pictorial genealogy of some thirty generations of the Braunschweig-Lüneburg dynasty, displayed in the form of a tree with half-figure portraits of family members hanging like fruit on its branches. At the top is an imposing headpiece of an Emperor flanked by God the Father and His Son, certifying the authority and divine grace conferred upon the family. The print is dedicated to the “newest growth” on the tree, Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel (1564-1613), the nineteen or twenty year-old son of the reigning duke. Work on the print commenced in 1582, when Herzog Julius summoned the blockcutter Georg Scharffenberg to Wolfenbüttel, and appointed him “Formschneider” at his court. Besides the impression here described, four other complete and three incomplete or fragmentary impressions can be located. -
Les Vies et Miracles des Saincts Pères hermites d’Égipte, Scythie, Thébaïde, et autres lieux. Descrites en partie, Traduictes du Grec et recueillies des Anciens Autheurs par S.t Ierosme Docteur de L’eglise. Nouuellement mises en Francois, augmentees de plusieurs vies fort approuuees: et enrichies de figures accommodees a l’histoire
Paris, Widow of Guillaume Chaudière, 1605First printing of this compendium of the lives and maxims of the Desert Fathers, dedicated to the royal finance minister Martin Ruzé de Beaulieu (1530-1613), and featuring a fine series of engravings of hermit saints by Jacob de Weert and Jacob van der Heyden. The text enjoyed enduring popularity, being reprinted at least a dozen times before the end of the century (the De Weert and Van der Heyden matrices were not used to illustrate any subsequent edition). Our copy was bound for a member of the Béthencourt family of Rouen, probably Galien II de Béthencourt, who was born in 1580, and in 1624 inherited the office of councillor of the court to the Parlement. -
Fuggerorum et Fuggerarum, quae in familia natae, quaève in familiam transierunt, quot extant aere expressae imagines
Augsburg, Andreas Aperger, 1618A collection of portraits of members of the mercantile and banking dynasty founded by Jakob Fugger (circa 1430-1518), each portrait accompanied by appropriate heraldic insignia, and displayed within an architectural or grotesque frame of impressive quality and size (platemarks 340 × 230 mm). On the versos of the portraits are printed brief genealogical notices apparently supplied by Marcus Henning (1561-circa 1622). The book has been long recognised as a valuable document for the history of costume, especially for women's clothing. Indeed, its most striking feature is the high proportion of women portrayed: nearly half of the portraits in this edition (sixty-two of 127) depict women, the wives and daughters of the Fuggers in nearly equal number. -
Artistisches Magazin: enthaltend das Leben und die Verzeichnisse der Werke hiesiger und anderer Künstler; nebst einem Anhang von allem, was in öffentlichen und Privat-Gebäuden der Stadt Frankfurt Merkwürdiges von Kunst-Sachen, Naturalien-Sammlungen, Bibliotheken und Münz-Cabineten zu sehen ist; wie auch einem Verzeichnis aller hiesigen Künstler Portraiten; mit einer Menge historischer Nachrichten, so aus ächten Original-Quellen geschöpft sind… Nebst zwey Kupfer-Tafeln
Frankfurt am Main, Johannes Bayrhoffer, 1790A revised edition of the author’s Nachrichten von Franckfurter Künstlern und Kunst-Sachen (Frankfurt am Main 1780), containing in its first part biographical notices of Frankfurt painters, printmakers, sculptors, architects, goldsmiths, and other craftsmen, and in the “Anhang” extensive descriptions of local public and private collections, together with a list of engraved portraits of Frankfurt artists. Hüsgen dedicates the new edition to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, cites one of Goethe’s etchings (”Landschaft mit altem Turm”, 1769), and in the appendix describes the collections in the family home (”bey Frau Rath Goehte, auf dem grosen Hirschgraben”) and mentions nine engraved portraits of Goethe. Although copies are in the principal German libraries, the book is not widely held elsewhere. -
Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart
Leipzig, E.A. Seemann, 1907-1950Thirty-seven volumes (27 cm), uniformly bound in half-morocco (a collector’s binding). - Original edition of this magisterial dictionary of artists, “a milestone for scholarly biographical art publishing” (Dictionary of Art Historians). It was started by Ulrich Thieme in 1898, with the intention of continuing a similar enterprise undertaken by Julius Meyer in 1872, which had ceased after three volumes. Becker withdrew from the project in 1910, owing to ill health; volumes 3-13, were edited by Thieme alone; volumes 14-15 by Thieme jointly with Frederick Charles Willis (b. 1883); and volumes 16-36 were edited by Hans Vollmer (1878-1969). Until 1921, when the Deutsche Verein für Kunstwissenschaft took over the project, it was financed entirely from Thieme and Becker’s private resources. Contact with more than 300 contributors was maintained despite the disruption of two World Wars; incredibly, three volumes were issued during the second War. A British air raid in 1944 destroyed the remaining stock of copies and ever since good sets of the original edition have been difficult to procure. ¶ Fine set. -
Chatham: his early life and connections
London, Arthur L. Humphreys, 1910(24 cm), xii, 526 pp. Publisher’s cloth. ¶ Exlibris “John Quinn”. Binding lightly stained, front hinge weakening. -
Henry Fox, first lord Holland, his family and relations
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1920Two volumes (22 cm), xiv (2), 365 (1) pp., frontispiece and [4] plates; ix (3), 391 (1) pp., frontispiece and [4] plates. Uniform publisher’s maroon cloth. - Henry Fox was at various times a lord of the treasury, secretary at war, paymaster general, secretary of state. The author, a descendant of Holland's brother, bases his account on family correspondence, which had been inaccessible to previous scholars. ¶ Frontispieces foxed; otherwise a well-preserved, unmarked copy. -
Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Lithographen, Formschneider, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc. 3. Auflage
Leipzig, Schwarzenberg & Schumann, [1924]Twenty-five volumes (23 cm), uniformly bound in burgundy cloth, backs lettered in gilt, green paper endleaves. - Facsimile reprint of the edition 1835-1852. ¶ From the reference library of Fiametta Olschki-Witt; sale by Bloomsbury Book Auctions, London, 5 October 1995, lot 135: £340. Some shelf-wear; a clean, unmarked and bright set. -
From my private diary, by Daisy, princess of Pless; edited with an introduction and notes by Major Desmond Chapman-Huston
London, John Murray, [1931](23 cm), xxiii (3), 346 (4) pp., frontispiece, [27] plates. Publisher’s cloth. - Memoirs of the society beauty Mary Theresa Olivia, née Cornwallis-West, consort of Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, châtelaine of Fürstenstein Castle and Pless Castle in Silesia. First edition. The American edition was entitled Better left unsaid (New York: Dutton, 1931). ¶ Front endpaper lightly offset from an insertion (since removed); inkstain in advertisements printed at end. -
Some materials towards memoirs of the reign of King George II. Printed from a copy of the original manuscript in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle; and from the original manuscript at Ickworth
London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1931Three volumes (23.5 cm), lx, 1003 pp. (consecutively paginated), illustrations. Uniform publisher’s blue cloth, top edges gilt. - The previous edition had been prepared by John Wilson Croker from a severely bowdlerized manuscript (London 1848). The discovery of the complete manuscript, among the papers of George III and George IV in the cellars of Apsley House, made possible a collation with the mutilated original at Ickworth, and Hervey’s “Memoirs” are here printed for the first time “without regard to considerations either of decency or dullness”. ¶ Copy 225 of 900 numbered sets. Backs lightly sunned; otherwise a fine, unmarked copy. -
Colloredovská a Mansfeldská bibliografie a ikonografie
Prague, [for the author], 1936(31 cm), 47 (3) pp. Publisher’s wrappers. - Bibliography of the Mansfeld and Colloredo families, including entries for the book collector Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld (1517-1604). Edition limited to 100 copies. ¶ Very good copy. -
Gladstone, a biography
New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., 1954(22 cm), xiv, 482 pp., [8] leaves of plates, illustrations. Publisher’s red cloth, dust jacket. - The dust jacket identifies this as the “Second printing”. ¶ Short tears in dust jacket, with minor losses; unmarked copy. -
The life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956(22 cm), xiv, 380 pp., frontispiece and 13 plates (nos. 2-14). Copyright notice inkstamped by publisher on verso of title-page. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket (dated “10/56”). ¶ Bookseller’s ticket on lower endpaper: From Jerrold Nedwick | Antiquarian Bookseller | 2013 Prairie Chicago, 16, Ill. Dust jacket worn, with some losses; a good, unmarked copy. -
Sir Robert Walpole : [Volume 1] The Making of a statesman § [2] The King's minister
Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1956-1961Two volumes (21.5 cm), xv (1), 407 (1) pp., frontispiece and 8 leaves of plates; xi (1), 363 (1) pp., frontispiece and 12 leaves of plates. Uniform publisher’s cloth. - First American editions (printed at the Riverside Press, Cambridge). ¶ Occasional pencil marginalia. Good copies. -
Aggiunte al Dizionario bio-bibliografico dei bibliotecari e bibliofili italiani di Carlo Frati
Florence, Sansoni Antiquariato, 1952 [i.e. 1957]-1960Three volumes (25.5 cm), I (A-C, [1957]): 307 (3) pp. II (D-M, 1959): 277 (1) pp. III (N-Z, 1960): 256 (2) pp. Illustrations (included in pagination). Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Supplements Carlo Frati’s Dizionario bio-bibliografico dei bibliotecari e bibliofili italiani (Florence 1933). Title-page of volume I misdated “1952”. ¶ Edition limited to 333 numbered copies, of which this is no. 244 (”numerati solo nel primo volume”). Spines lightly soiled, a few spots on wrappers. Excellent set.
![Tier 1, sheet [2]](/resize.php?path=img/p/4/5/9/6/4596.jpg&width=189&height=250 "Tier 1, sheet [2]")
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