Rare Books Berlin - Internationale Messe für Bücher und Graphik

ARETINO, Pietro; CARO, Annibale. La prima [seconda] parte de ragionamenti. Commento di ser Agresto da Ficaruolo, sopra la prima ficata del padre Siceo. Con la diceria de nasi.

Bengodi: 21 October 1584 [1649 or 1651]. Octavo (148×105mm), 3 parts in one volume. I: [5] leaves, 198 pages; II: [3] leaves, 339 [i.e. 340] pages; III: 118 pages. Several historiated initials and a small engraving on FF3v. Late nineteenth-century French green morocco binding, covers with double panel of gilt lines, spine in compartments decorated and lettered in gilt; gilt edges, marbled endpapers. Armorial ex- libris on front paste-down. A few spots; overall a good copy. A rare, clandestine edition of Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), the major Renaissance author of erotic literature. A humanist, playwright and poet, he was active between the Roman court, Mantua and Venice, earning a reputation among his contemporaries for his bold satirical and polemical works directed towards the powers at the time. His scandalous and almost pornographic Ragionamenti was first printed in Venice in 1534–36 and was soon censored, as were all of Aretino's other writings, but it later circulated through the surreptitious London editions printed by John Wolfe in the 1580s, as well as their close continental reprints. Since the 1580s, Wolfe had become known for printing several editions of "popular and well-known Italian works which could not be reprinted by Italian printers (as they normally would have been) because of their appearance in the newly-established Roman Catholic Index Librorum Prohibitorum" (Woodfield, p. 8). The publication of works by Niccolò Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino, for example, was prohibited in Italy and any other Catholic country, yet there was a continuous demand for these books, which was likely even stimulated by the papal ban itself. Wolfe had already gained experience in the printing of Italian books while working in Florence in the 1570s and thus was able to cater to both the foreign market and English readers interested in Italian literature. His first venture was Aretino's La prima parte de Ragionamenti, in late 1584. The present edition is among the continental reprints that appeared following the great success of Wolfe's activity, when publishers seemed to be able to circumvent the effects of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Woodfield describes it as follows: "It was printed on the Continent as a double volume, almost certainly in 1651. At the bottom of N8v there is printed the motto: "MediCata RelaboR." The letters which are in larger capitals seem to be a fashion of indicating the date MDCLI, which is probably the year when this edition was printed." It is also described as a close reprint of another early seventeenth-century continental, likely from Amsterdam, edition, which was itself a reprint of a late sixteenth-century London edition. In EDIT16, however, it is reported that this edition should date to 1649. The Ragionamenti parodies Pietro Bembo's Asolani and the Platonic dialogue genre more broadly, a popular literary form in the early XVI century. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, two elderly prostitutes, Nanna and Antonia, discuss whether Nanna's daughter, the young Pippa, should live as a nun, a wife or a prostitute, ultimately agreeing that a career as a prostitute is the safest and most honest option. In the second part, Nanna teaches Pippa the skills and secrets of the perfect prostitute and warns her of the dangers of the trade, particularly betrayals by men. It is followed by the Ragionamento del frate Zoppino a Ludovico puttaniere, con la genealogia di tutte le cortigiane romane, a lively satire of Roman society of the time, the Commento di ser Agresto and the Diceria de nasi. Although these last two works are here attributed to Aretino, they were probably written by Annibale Caro (1507–1566), the author of the famous translation of Virgil's Aeneid.

Sachgebiete: Einbände, Erotica, Humanismus, Italien

21.07.2026 - 17:16

3000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

TASSO, Torquato. La Gerusalemme liberata.

Parma: nel Regal Palazzo co' tipi Bodoniani, 1794. Quarto (310 x 230 mm.), two volumes: [20], 331, [1] pages; [4], 337, [3] pages. In both volumes instead of first blank page there is a printed page declaring that “quest'edizione appartiene alla biblioteca particolare di S.A.I. Eugenio Napoleone di Francia vice-re d'Italia”. A very fine untrimmed copy bound in half red morocco, covers with gilt supralibros of Eugene Napoleon of France and his wife Augusta of Bayern, flat spines with gilt decoration green morocco lettering pieces. A very fine copy with an important provenance of Tasso's masterpiece. The Bodoni edition of La Gerusalemme liberata, is dedicated to the King of Spain Carlos IV de Borbon, who had gratified Bodoni with an annual pension and the title of Tipografo di Sua Maestà, and edited by Pier Antonio Serassi (1721 – 1791) who revised the text upon the editions printed in 1581 and 1584, and on some autograph notes by Tasso in his personal collection. “Sometime in the early 1790s, Bodoni conceived the idea of printing by subscription uniform editions of the four Italian poets Tasso, Dante, Petrarch and Ariosto. He detailed his plans in a prospectus circulated in 1793 (printed in English and Italian): 'Two Editions of each [author's work] will come out at the same time… Of the First in grand Folio, on a superfine, chosen paper and polish'd, there will be only fifty copies struck off… Of the same Edition in common Folio, on fine royal paper and polish'd, one hundred & fifty Copies will be printed… Of the second Edition in grand Quarto, on superfine chosen paper and polish'd, there will be 100 Copies… And of this Edition in common Quarto, on fine royal paper, polish'd, there will be two hundred Copies… And each Copy, if the subscriber chuses [sic] shall have a page of frontis¬piece with his name, surname and additions, which will be a lasting proof of the original propriety of the Book'. The first text to be printed was the Gerusalemme liberata. On 22 July 1794, Bodoni informed a correspondent that the work was well-underway (ho quattro torchi occupati attualmente nella stampa della Gerusalemme liberata) and that it would appear in September in cinque diverse forme, tutte eleganti e nitidissime. In fact, four (not five) editions were produced, and the quantities printed were not as specified in the 1793 prospectus. The earliest bibliographers of the Bodoni press, Francesco Fusi and Giuseppe De Lama, writing in 1814 and 1816 respectively, maintain that the four editions were printed in this order: (1) in two volumes, with three cantos printed on each page, foglio grande (page height 470 mm, or smaller), on laid paper with PB watermark (carta reale fina, detta di Napoli), 130 copies printed (100 copies reserved for subscribers or so-called ‘Associati', and 30 for sale to others); (2) in three volumes, with two cantos printed per page, foglio mezzano (page height 450 mm, or smaller), on wove paper (velina), 100 copies printed; (3) in two volumes, foglio piccolo (page height circa 390 mm), on wove paper (di Londra); (4) in two volumes, quarto (page height circa 300 mm), on laid paper (reale fina detta di Napoli). Bodoni's ambitious project to print luxurious editions of the Italian poets was ultimately a commercial disappointment: the next work to appear in the series, Dante's Divina comedia, was published in 1795–1796, also in four editions (Brooks nos. 588, 653–654; Giani p. 53); Petrarch's Rime, published in 1799, appeared however in two editions only (Brooks nos. 733–734; Giani p. 61); and Ariosto never proceeded to press.” (Robin Halwas)

Sachgebiete: Einbände, Italien, Literatur bis ca. 1900, Napoleon, Typographie

21.07.2026 - 17:13

8000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

ARCHIMEDES. Archimedis opera non nulla à Federico Commandino urbinate nuper in latinum conversa, et commentariis illustrata.

Venice: apud Paulum Manutium Aldi f., 1558. Folio (300×203mm), 2 parts in one volume with separate titles. I: [4], 55, [1] leaves; II: [1], 63, [1] leaves. Printer's device on title-page and last leaf of both parts. Numerous diagrams in text. Light marginal spotting, a manuscript monogram on title-page, overall a very fine copy in XVIII century stiff vellum, spine in compartments with two morocco lettering pieces, title lettered in manuscript on lower edge. First edition of Federico Commandino's translation of Archimedes. This edition not only marked a pivotal moment in the rediscovery of Archimedes, whose writings were almost entirely forgotten during the Middle Ages, but also contributed to the development of mathematical studies in the XVI and XVII centuries, directly influencing Galileo and Kepler. Federico Commandino (1509–1575) studied Latin and Greek in Urbino, then moved to Padua in 1534 to study philosophy, medicine and mathematics. In the 1550s, he came under the patronage of the young Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese, who appointed him as court physician and mathematician. While in Rome with Cardinal Farnese, Commandino met Cardinal Marcello Cervini, the head librarian of the Vatican Library and future Pope Marcellus II. Cervini had a keen interest in Greek mathematics and had already conceived the idea of printing important Greek and Latin mathematical writings based on the manuscripts of the Vatican Library and other Italian libraries. Thanks to Farnese's encouragement and Cervini's requests, Commandino could devote the rest of his life to his greatest passion: restoring and producing Latin editions of classical Greek mathematical texts. In this role, Commandino had access to important manuscripts in Italian libraries and was in contact with the most prominent humanists of his time. The most notable works he edited and published were those of Archimedes, Ptolemy, Apollonius, Euclid and Pappus. "Archimedes, the greatest mathematician and engineer of antiquity, studied at Alexandria and lived most of his life at Syracuse. He was killed at the capture of Syracuse by the Romans under Marcellus in 212 by a Roman soldier whom he rebuked for trampling on a diagram he had drawn in the sand. [He] was above all a great mathematician, developing further many ideas of Eudoxus and Euclid. […] Archimedes — together with Newton and Gauss — is generally regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever known, and if his influence had not been overshadowed at first by Aristotle, Euclid and Plato, the progress to modern mathematics might have been much faster. As it was, his influence began to take full effect only after the publication of [the] first printed edition which enabled Descartes, Galileo and Newton in particular to build on what he had begun" (PMM). Although the first appearance of any of Archimedes's works in print dates back only to 1503, the editio princeps of the Greek texts of seven of his works was not published until 1544 by Thomas Gechauff Venatorius, in Basel. However, Commandino found this edition entirely unsatisfactory: despite the translation, commentary and diagrams, many of the Archimedean demonstrations still remained obscure. Commandino's main motivations for translating Archimedes's books again from scratch were his desire to fully understand the mathematics they conveyed, and his wish to provide commentary that would clarify points less clear in the Basel edition. He began working on this new translation when, during a visit to Venice in 1553, he borrowed a Greek manuscript containing the writings of Archimedes with Eutocius's commentary from the Biblioteca Marciana. This manuscript was itself a copy of an older one dating back to the IX or X century, and it originally came from Cardinal Bessarion's library. In 1558, his new edition of five Archimedean writings was printed in Venice, containing five treatises: De Circuli dimensio, De lineis spiralibus, Quadratura paraboles, De conoidibus et sphaeroidibus, De numero arenae. These are followed, in the second part of the volume, by Commandino's commentary. Commandino's Archimedis opera non nulla is a significant achievement of mathematical humanism for its mathematical commentary and philological explanations, and served as an invaluable reference both for the subsequent editions of Archimedes's works as well as for XVI- and XVII-century mathematicians. Galileo Galilei owned a copy as it was the only available guide to understanding De lineis spiralibus, from which he drew inspiration for his observations on uniform motion published in Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze (1638). In his Astronomia nova (1609), Johannes Kepler used Commandino's commentary on De conoidibus et sphaeroidibus to demonstrate the elliptical orbit of Mars. Kepler also explicitly referenced this edition in Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena (1604), quoting Commandino's commentary on De numero arenae. These references testify to the importance of Commandino's Archimedis for the rebirth of mathematical studies in Italy and abroad.

Sachgebiete: Alte Drucke 16. Jahrhundert , Altphilologie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Mathematik, Renaissance

21.07.2026 - 17:09

15000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

Signierter brauner Bronze Hummer, Jizai Okimono (bewegliches Kunstobjekt) sehr schönes Objekt der japanischen Metallkunst, Original aus der Meiji-Ära um 1900 - 26 cm lang

An der Unterseite des Schwanzes signiert Yasunosuke. Jedes Glied am Hummer ist separat gefertigt und voll beweglich, der Körper und die Vorderklauen sind mit einer Noppenstruktur versehen, um den Panzer nachzuahmen. Normale Altersspuren, alle Gelenke und Glieder vollständig und schön erhalten. Insgesamt mit schöner Alterspatina und guter Zustand.

21.07.2026 - 17:09

1800,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens

[BIBLIA ARABICA]. Evangelium Iesu Christi quemadmodum scripsit Mar Mattheus unus ex duodecim discipulis eius.

Rome: Typographia Medicea, 1591. Folio (329 x 217 mm.), 9 - 462 pages, as issued without title and preliminaries. “Double-rule border on each page of text. One hundred forty-nine woodcuts, by repetition of sixty-seven blocks, approximately 100 x 125 mm. Fourteen of these blocks are signed with the monograms of Antonio Tempesta as designer and Leonardo Parasole as cutter, and four other blocks have Parasole's signature alone. An early attribution of the “LP” monogram to Luca Penni is incorrect. […] The Arabic types are those designed by Robert Granjon for Domenico Basa, and Granjon was employed by the Typographia as type designer in the last years of his life.” (Mortimer). Occasional light spotting, some browning; a good copy in contemporary limp vellum with manuscript title on spine. First printing of the Gospels in the interlinear Arabic and Latin version, printed by the Typographia Medicea at the same time of the publication of the Gospels in Arabic only. The Arabic text, printed in Robert Granjon's famous large font, regarded as the earliest satisfactory Arabic type, is based on the Alexandrian Vulgate and is edited by Giovanni Battista Raimondi; the Latin version is by Leonardo Sionita. The book begins at page 9 without a title-page or any preliminary matters: “the reason for the apparent omission of pages of preliminaries is explained by Schnurrer quoting Bandini (C.F. de Schnurrer, Biblioteca Arabica, Amsterdam, 1968); G.B. Raimondi hoped to dedicate the volume to some great person, but failed to do so. In casting off the pagination, therefore, pp. 5-8 were omitted. The book was printed in Rome, but the unsold sheets went to Florence sometime about 1610, and any copy sold after that was sold in Florence. In the reissue of 1619 the gap in the pagination was seized upon and Schnurrer says that it has a leaf with dedication to Cardinal Madruzzi and a portrait together with the leaf "Typographus lectori" separately printed, without the colophon and with a different ornament. In all this makes four leaves, i.e. [8] pages. However it is clear that copies were made up on a very ad hoc basis. The sheets were again reissued in 1774.” (Sotheby's The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield Part VII: Bibles 1477-1739. 2006) This is the second book issued by the Typographia Medicea established in 1584 by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, later gran duke of Tuscany from 1587, supported by Pope Gregory XIII and directed by the Orientalist and mathematician Giovanni Battista Raimondi (1536?-1614). The ultimate purpose of the Typographia Medicea was, in the Pope's mind, the printing of sacred and religious texts in Oriental languages that were to be disseminated throughout the Mediterranean and the Near East. Antonio Tempesta (1555 - 1630), Italian painter and engraver of the early Baroque era, was the author of the illustrations of both editions of the Gospel in Arabic printed by the Typoraphia Medicea.

Sachgebiete: Alte Drucke 16. Jahrhundert , Arabistik, Bibeln, Typographie, Holzschnitt

21.07.2026 - 17:07

11000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

Tsingtau - Großes Fotoalbum (China) um 1910, deutsche Matrosen-Artillerie, Marine, 118 Fotos

Fotos Tsingtau (Deutsche Kolonie Kiautschou), Lackalbum --- Vollständiges, beeindruckendes Fotoalbum eines deutschen Soldaten in einer Matrosenartillerie-Kompanie in Tsingtau; mit Datierungen von 1909 bis 1911. Der Albumhalter (Wilhelm Schütterle in Kehl) ist später als Mitglied der "Vereinigung ehemaliger Tsingtauer" nachweisbar. Fest auf die 25 Papp-Albumblätter montiert sind insgesamt 118 Fotos (ohne Fehlstellen, es wurden also keine Bilder entfernt), davon 24 großformatige (ca. 17,3 x 22,5 cm) und 94 kleinerformatige (ca. 10,5 x 15 cm). Auf vier Fotos sind handgeschriebene Schilder zu erkennen: "Ein Mittagsstündchen in den Tropen 1908-11 noch 220 Tage"; "Erste Ostern im Fernen Osten 1909"; "Alte Knochen beim letzten Ostern in Tsingtau 08-11" und "Letzte Ostern in Tsingtau 1910." --- Motive sind sehr häufig die deutschen Soldaten in ihrer weißen Matrosen-Uniform (Mützen mit Aufschrift "Matrosenartillerie"), aber auch die einheimische Bevölkerung (Zivil und Soldaten). Mehrere Aufnahmen stammen aus dem Gebirge, einige wurden auf einem Schiff gemacht. Es gibt auch Außenaufnahmen von Schiffen, einige Fotos von Häusern (ein Haus mit Firmen-Aufschrift der Tsingtauer Schlosserei Schierwagen & Scheithauer), einem gestrandeten Kleinwal, Schießübungen etc. --- Sehr beeindruckende Motive; scharfe Fotos. Tsingtau um 1910 Originales Lackalbum (27 x 35,5 x 5,5 cm) mit Deckelillustration (Drache) und Lederrücken. Umfang: 25 Papp-Albumblätter mit ins. 118 montierten Fotos. Mit Besitzerstempel des Soldaten Wilhelm Schütterle aus Kehl. --- Zustand: Fotos in gutem bis sehr gutem Zustand. Die Albumblätter teils fleckig, die Deckel mit oberflächlichen Rissen, der Rücken ist berieben.

21.07.2026 - 17:01

1800,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens

NOVELLI, Francesco. Disegni del Mantegna.

Venice: 1796-1799 circa. Folio (386 x 277 mm.), engraved title-page with the bust of Mantegna on a pedestral, engraved dedication printed on two leaves anf fourty-four engraved plates. Contemporary half calf, gilt spine in compartments with red morocco lettering-piece. Spine very lightly rubbed, overall very fine. ‘A rare suite of prints reproducing drawings of putti playing of fighting, all'antica heads, and studies of the Virgin and Child, once attributed to Andrea Mantegna, now recognized as works of Marco Zoppo (1432/3-1478). The prints are dedicated by the printmaker Francesco Novelli to Giambattista de Rubeis, and all but the last two reproduce drawings executed in pen and ink and wash on vellum in an album that De Rubeis had given to the printmaker's father, the Venetian painter Pietro Antonio Novelli. The album passed subsequently through the hands of Samuel Woodburn, Sir Alexander Barker, Baron Mayer de Rothschild, to Archibald Philip Primrose, fifth Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), who in 1920 presented it to the British Museum. The function of the album has been much debated, with some reading ita s apattern book, others as an adjunct to a literary text – perhaps Petrarch's De viris illustribus – or as a luxury picture book commissioned by a patron in Venice or Padua; its date, too, is uncertain, with arguments ranging from the mid-1460s. The elusive meaning of some of the drawings and discret homosexual imagery in others “suggest a commission where the patron had a hand in providing some of the subject matter, the significance of which may have been understood only by a small circle of friends” (Chapman, Padua in the 1450s: Marco Zoppo and his contemporaries, exhibition catalogue by Hugo Chapman, British Museum, Departments of Prints and Drawings, London 1998, pp.38, 40) […] In the dedicatory letter, Novelli recounts the discovery of the album in 1765 in Padua by Giambattista de Rubeis (1743-1819), a painter and a dilettante from Udine. He tells us that various experts of Padua, recognizing ita s an important work of art derived from Squarcione, decided that the drawings must be by his most illustrious pupil, Mantegna, basing this attribution on a resenblance, in their opinion, to the so-called Tarocchi del Mantegna. In the letter, Novelli attemps to support the attribution, by finding affinities with the Triumphs of Caesar and other authentic works of Mantegna. The album consists of twenty-six vellum leaves, of which twenty-four are drawn on both sides and two are blank on one side, so the total number of drawings is fifty. Novelli's plan was to engrave all fifty drawings and issue his prints serialy, in group of eight, to subrcribers. […] In a letter of December 1796 to Abate Mauro Boni, Novelli writes that he had become apprehnsive about publishing prints of two drawings, because he considered them licentious, and thus likely to lose his subscribers, as incorrect in drawing. We learn from another letter that Francesco Novelli had acquired from Abate Pietro Bini, sometime before 27 May 1796, a double-sided drawing (on paper) showing eight studies of the Virgin and Child in a variety of pose. Novelli belived this sheet to be also by Mantegna – despite receiving from the Venetian connosseur Giovanni Maria Sasso the correct attribution to Zoppo – and he etched both sides as substitute for two rami licenziosi recording the different provenance directly on the plates: Il disegno fu regalato all'incisore dall'Egregio Pittore Sigr. Abre. Pietro Bini. […] The project was brought to a close in 1799, […]. In an undated Avviso [in our copy pasted onto the front pastedawn], Novelli explained that the work would terminate with forty-four prints, however the two prints of the Virgin anc Child (each with four studies) would be counted as eight, thereby fulfilling his promise to supply 50 disegni originali di Andrea Mantegna. The majority of surviving copies are comprised of forty-seven or forty-eight prints: the title-print (often supplied in two versions, one with and the other without lettering); two leaves of engraved dedication and forty-four numbered plates.' (Robin Halwas)

Sachgebiete: Kupferstich, Handzeichnungen, Illustrierte Bücher, Renaissance

21.07.2026 - 17:00

9000,- EUR

Meda Riquier Rare Books LTD

6 große farbige erotische Malereien auf Seide montiert in ein Leporello - China Mongolia Erotik Original-Malerei

6 farbige im unteren Rand gestempelte Malereien jeweils ca. 36,5 x 27 cm. Montiert in ein Leporello aus der Zeit um 1900, Karton mit Goldbrokat bezogen ca. 33 x 43,5 cm. Insgesamt hat das Leporello eine Länge von ca. 2,60 m und eine Höhe von 43,5 cm. Sehr schöner Zustand Leporello with gold brocade cloth covers (260 x 43,5 cm), with 6 ink and watercolour erotic scenes on silk (each leaf app. 36,5 x 27 cm). China, Mongolia n.d. c. 1900. An erotic hand painted color leporello, 6 individual scenes, each sheet is stamped in the lower corner. Of unusual size and beauty. Wonderful condition.

21.07.2026 - 16:58

1800,- EUR

Antiquariat Thomas Mertens