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ALBRECHT, Lorenz. Evangelisch prognostic.

Munich, Adam Berg, 1589. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 4to. ff. 8. Gothic letter. Woodcut of a man holding an almanac with his family. First and last a bit dusty, minor repair to margins and gutter of a couple of ll., small tear with no loss to gutter of third and outer margin of last, second gathering lightly browned with faint dampstaining. A very good copy in C19 floral paper over pasteboards. A remarkably clean copy of this German astrological almanac a rare survival of C16 ephemera. A former Lutheran preacher, Lorenz Albrecht (1540-1606) was the author of German and Latin religious works and re-converted to the Catholic faith in 1567. Evangelisch Prognosticon testifies to his disillusionment with the Protestant Reformation the Gospel of Luther and his intent to oppose this heresy through the popular genre of the almanac, imitating Johannes Nas s Practica Practicarum . As usual in astrological almanacs, it discusses planets, constellations, zodiacal signs and the seasons and their influx on humans with references to ancient authorities like Pliny and Manilius; but the tone is grim and planets are seen as harbingers of vices. The ominous statement by which the seat of the devil is at the centre of the earth and heresy is at the centre of the universe shows how Albrecht s almanac presented the influence of the cosmos as something that Catholics should resist through will and spiritual exercise so as not to succumb to the Protestant heresy. Only Concordia Seminary Library copy recorded in the US.USTC 349262; VD16 A1594. Cantamessa: 140 bis. Not in Houzeau-Lancaster. R.B. Barnes, Astrology and Reformation (Oxford, 2016). L2915

Sachgebiete: Kirchengeschichte, Sittengeschichte, Religion

05.08.2026 - 13:31

2500,- EUR

Sokol Books Ltd

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo. Secreta mulierum ab Alberto Magno composita. (WITH A UNIQUE ASTROLOGICAL MS)

[Speyer], [Conrad Hist], [about 1495-97]. 4to, 34 unnumbered leaves (last blank), + 17 manuscript leaves. Gothic letter, large woodcut depicting a school scene to t-p, a bit dusty with crude early repair to upper outer corner, light age yellowing, occasional foxing and spot to margins, insignificant waterstain to upper edges, light oil splashes to last 3 ll. not affecting reading. Manuscript averaging 28 lines, brown ink in two different gothic cursive hands (the first German, the second possibly Flemish or Dutch), first initial and underlining in red, red pen flourishing at foot of first ms. leaf, one ms. horoscope diagram. A good copy in early C19 patterned boards, vellum spine, label of Ernest Thorin (C19 bookseller in Paris) to front pastedown. A remarkable copy of this treatise on human reproduction by Pseudo Albertus Magnus, bound with a 17-page manuscript containing a astronomical text on the principles of chronological computation, apparently for astrological purposes, doubtless inspired by the printed text and an intriguing example of manuscript and print at the time of their transition. Secreta Mulierum (On women's secrets) was composed in the late 13th or early 14th century by an unknown disciple of Albertus Magnus, the most learned and prolific writer of the Middle Ages. Although scholars proposed the names of Thomas of Brabant or Henry of Saxony, the problem of authorship remains unsolved. The main text is accompanied by, and at times mixed with, a commentary, whose attribution is also debated. Relying on ancient and medieval writings, Pseudo-Albert discusses various aspects of reproduction, including the generation of the embryo, the formation and development of the fetus, the signs of conception, virginity, chastity, defects of the womb, impediments to conception and others. In the introduction, he states that his style will be partly philosophical, partly medical, just as seems to fit the material . By "philosophical" he refers to natural philosophy, or natural science, concerned with the study of the world and cosmos. Although Pseudo-Albert raises a number of medical topics nature of the menses, birth complications, gestation his knowledge of medicine is limited. On the other hand, the discussion on natural philosophy is complex and it explores in detail the relationship between human nature, reproduction and celestial bodies. Crucially, the author describes the effects of astrological influence on the developing fetus, also showing how the sphere of the fixed stars confers different virtues: Saturn gives the ability to reason, the Sun to remember, Jupiter grants generosity, Venus causes the separation of hands and feet, the Moon completes the skin. Vincent of Beauvais and Michael Scot may note some of the celestial effects, but pseudo-Albert addresses himself seriously to the problem of how they come about, and this effort forms the major thrust of his writing. Although the De secretis mulierum names women's secrets as its subject matter, if we weigh the length and the level of discourse we can almost consider this to be an astrological treatise. (Lemay) Renaissance scholars commonly practiced astrology, and the manuscript pages at the end suggest that the early owner of this volume was particularly involved. The text is a Computus Ecclesiasticus , which discusses solar and lunar cycles in relation to religious festivities and mobile feasts of the ecclesiastical calendar (Julian). In addition to basic knowledge (e.g. what a lunar cycle is), it provides precise instructions on how to calculate (computare) dates of feast days, such as dies dominicales (Sundays). Interestingly, it is arranged around metric formulas that were traditionally used to memorise calculations: here these are underlined in red, and each word corresponds to a number or provides a letter which will be used in the computations. For example, we find Sed, Quinque, Tred, Ambo, Decem, Doc, Septem, Quind, Quater, Dud, Jota, Novem, Sept VI, Quard , used to calculate the Golden number (a number from 1 to 19 which designate the year within the Metonic cycle of the moon phases). We also find: Bonus erat homo Katho, nobilis quoque Seno , which was employed to calculate the insertion of a leap day, week or year into a calendar and the second part of the manuscript is mostly concerned with this. Learning computus , the science of calculating times and dates, was fundamental for astrologers. This discipline, used in conjunction with astrolabes to predict the position of the planets (mentioned in the manuscript) and astronomical tables, was used to cast horoscopes, exactly like the one that we find at the beginning of the manuscript. The text was composed by two writers between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century: in a few places, the second updates and annotates the first, including adding ab anno 1500 and 1501 to his comments. USTC 742409; ISTC ia00313900; GW 734; Bod-Inc: A-135; Klebs 26.16. This ed not in Goff, Cantamessa, Stillwell, Heirs of Hippocrates or Wellcome I. L3672

Sachgebiete: Esoterik, Genderstudies, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Mittelalter

05.08.2026 - 13:22

26000,- EUR

Sokol Books Ltd

ALBERTUS MAGNUS. Liber aggregationis, seu Liber secretorum de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium. (IN C13 VELLUM MS. LEAF)

Cologne, Cornelis de Zierikzee, c.1506. Small 4to. 24 unnumbered ll., A 8 B 4 C 8 D 4 . Gothic letter. Two woodcut panels to t-p, handsome, large woodcut printer's device to verso and verso of last. T-p a little dusty, light marginal foxing or occasional slight water stain, minor marginal repair to B 4 , couple of early marginalia. A very good, well-margined copy in a C13 ms. leaf on vellum (double column, initials and line headings rubricated in red and blue), modern eps, lightly oilstained on lower cover. Handsomely bound in a C13 ms. leaf, on vellum, with Chapter XXIII of St Matthew s Gospel. A very good, well-margined copy of this very rare edition of one of the most influential medieval books of secrets. Albertus Magnus (1200-80) was a German friar, later canonised, responsible for the establishment of the curriculum studiorum of the Dominicans, including the study of Aristotle. He was also conversant in the natural sciences, philosophy and astrology. After his death, several works on the secrets of nature were attributed to him. The Liber aggregationis first reached the press in 1477 after centuries of successful ms. circulation. Its three main works are short handbooks on the natural, medical and occult properties of herbs, stones and animals: i.e., ways of preparing and administering herbs to treat abscesses or chest infections, the use of stones to create a perpetual fire or chase away visions (phantasmata), or the ways in which parts of animals could produce beneficial effects (e.g., wearing a hoopoe's eyes on one's chest could pacify friends, keeping its head in one's purse would make one immune to merchants' frauds). The fourth work, De mirabilibus mundi, is concerned with the beneficial exploitation of the wondrous properties of nature to solve everyday problems, from preventing pregnancies by making women drink ram's urine or hare's blood, to ways of capturing moles - this last of interest to the early annotator of this copy. The last work, Regimen sanitates contra pestilenciam siue epidimiam, was attributed to the bishop and physician Ranutio; it provides useful suggestions, according to the months and zodiac, to keep a healthy life and avoid epidemics, e.g., avoiding blood-letting in August and, for Pisces, avoiding gout treatment when the moon meets their sign. LC copy only recorded in the US.ISTC ia00267020; Goff Suppl. A266a; VD16 A1366; GW 657; Schuh, Albertus Magnus 62; NLM 83 (but Goff A267); BM STC Ger., p. 15 (1500 ed.); Index Aureliensis 102496 (but attributes to Cologne, H. Quentel). Ferguson, Wellcome, Osler and Houzeau-Lancaster do not list this edition. L3342

Sachgebiete: Kirchengeschichte, Esoterik, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Mittelalter

05.08.2026 - 13:06

11000,- EUR

Sokol Books Ltd

CHILDREN'S BOOKS – POISONOUS PEDAGOGY – DEDICATION COPIES.

[Wilhelmine von Auersperg]: Puppen-Memoiren. [Ohne Ort, Privatdruck, 1865]. Farbig lithographierter Titel, 57 Seiten. Halbleinenband der Zeit mit goldgeprägtem Rückentitel. 15 x 23,5 cm.

Sachgebiete: Kinderbücher, Pädagogik, Widmungsexemplare

05.08.2026 - 12:45

850,- EUR

Antiquariat Daniela Kromp

AGRIPPA, Henrich Cornilius. Militiae Equitis Aurati...[I]n Artem Brevem Raymundi Lullii, Commentaria

Solingen, Joannes Soter, 1538. 8vo. pp [284] a-r8 s6. Roman letter, occasional Italic. Woodcut initials, t.p. with printer's device of cherub within wreath, 8 woodcut diagrams of Lullian circles. Contemp. ex libris Antonius Dachselhof of Berne to Lly. Very minor damp stain and spot to t.p, woodcut circle on b5 just shaved at outer margin. A very good, clean and well-margined copy in contemporary limp vellum with 14 original blank unnumbered ll in front and 31 at end, contemp ink title to upper cover and spine, original kid ties. Second edition of Agrippa's (1486 - 1535) commentary on Raymond Lull's (1232-1316) Ars Magna or Ultimate General Art', a system of logic blending influences from Arabic mysticism, Egyptian hermeticism, and Lull's missions to Jews and Muslims. In his preface Agrippa praises Lull's art 'as easy to learn for students young and old': in fact it is based on a confusing series of paper 'machines' Lull had developed to do his reasoning for him, comprising of circles with symbols representing key topics. When rotated together in any combination they yield only theologically true' statements, such as 'Angels are Wise', and 'God is Eternal'. These so-called 'Lullian Circles' were intended as tools for debating faith with Muslims: ironically they were based from an Arabic astrological tool used to cast horoscopes known as the zairja. Agrippa breaks down each circle and its function: there are nine main subjects including God, Angels, and Man, each assigned a letter B-K. The same letters are assigned to characteristics: Goodness, Greatness, Duration, Power, Wisdom, Will, Virtue, Truth, and Glory. The relationship between these sets of terms is determined by three triangles that highlight their differences, similarities, and magnitudes of importance to one another. There is a detailed discussion of the meaning of each circle's constituent terms, including how it is possible to reduce all of philosophy to so few qualities from so many. The work concludes with the rules for using the Lullian Circle, and lists of all possible letter combinations that consider the meanings of some combinations, essentially meditating on the nature of goodness. The work ends with a final breakdown of Lull's terms into tables showing how each relate to the other. An ambitious and strange book irrespective of Agrippa's success in actually explaining Lull's system: Jonathan Swift thought it ridiculous enough to feature in Gulliver's Travels, but Borges credits him as the inventor of the 'thinking machine': what information scientists call the earliest type of computer. Rare. The only other copy traceable at auction is the Broxbourne copy, Sotheby's 1978.BM STC Gr. p. 11. Index Aureliensis I 101.866. Palau I 3333. Caillet II 6864 "Edition originale". L1411

Sachgebiete: Esoterik, Kunstgeschichte, Instrumente (Technik)

05.08.2026 - 12:39

5000,- EUR

Sokol Books Ltd

AGRIPPA, Cornelius. De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum.

[Cologne, Eucharius Cervicornus, 1536]. 8vo. 208 unnumbered ll., A8, a-Bb8. Roman letter, little Gothic. Author s woodcut portrait to t-p, a few decorated white-on-black initials. T-p a little age yellowed, small tear from fore-edge, slight yellowing, light water stain in final gatherings, vellum slip from rubricated C15 Dutch ms. used as spine lining just visible, penultimate gathering slightly loosening at foot, small mark to lower outer blank corner of last two ll. A good, unsophisticated copy in contemporary Netherlandish calf, panel-stamped, double ruled, border of tendrils, urns, cherub at head and two interlacing wyverns at foot, centre panel with imperial arms, circular portrait of Charles V signed KO and columns of Hercules with imperial motto Plus Ultra, raised bands, few cracks to covers, edges a bit rubbed. Bookplate of Maurice Burrus and contemporary ms. inscription (signed F. Hessek?) on underlying sheet (visible with UV) on front pastedown, bibliographical notes c1800 to feps, contemporary ms. monogram (FH) to t-p, occasional contemporary annotations. An attractive, unsophisticated copy, in an unusual, contemporary Netherlandish binding, of this extremely influential philosophical work, praised by the likes of Montaigne and Descartes. Due to the controversial reputation of its author, several early editions have few recorded copies and a complex bibliographical history, i.e., from the first of 1530 (possibly a ghost ) to 1539, with most bearing neither imprint nor (frequently) a date. According to D. Clément's Bibliothèque Curieuse (1750), this edition is very similar to that printed in Cologne. The pages are unnumbered. It has no suppressed passages. There is one difference: the title is decorated with the bust of Cornelius Agrippa, absent in all preceding six editions (I, n.86). This is one of his earliest and most reliable portraits. Agrippa (1486-1535) was a major German polymath, physician, soldier (who travelled extensively in Europe) and official historian to Charles V; he was especially renowned for his occulta and ideas on the cabala (Bodin called him the greatest magician of his age), which led to clashes with the Inquisition, despite his recantation. Agrippa's ambivalence towards occultism, religion and epistemology caused a mixed reception of De incertitudine, a harsh critique of all sciences and arts, and Renaissance epistemology in general - which Agrippa subsequently defended in print. Each of the 102 chapters summarises wittily, only to berate, a discipline or art, from the elements of the trivium and quadrivium to optics, acting, painting, architecture, politics, natural philosophy, commerce, agriculture, surgery, anatomy, prostitution, veterinary medicine, law and cooking. There are fascinating sections on judicial astrology (an art bringing no certainty, which can be turned into anything, according to opinion), physiognomy (which infers nonsense from horoscopes based on physical appearance), magic (including necromancy), heraldry (by which heralds dressed in military uniform astrologise, philosophise and theologise with foolish knowledge), the inquisition (with a violent attack against the Dominicans trials of heretics from his native Cologne), and alchemy (which can be defined as an art, or sham, or persecution of nature). The conclusion is an encomium of the ass, i.e. ignorance, which is preferable to this useless knowledge. Despite the serious attacks of great minds like Bodin and Thevet, De incertitudine is a deeply ironic work, an aspect of Agrippa s work much praised, for instance, by Philip Sidney. Like the works in similar vein of Erasmus, Rabelais and many others, [it] is a literary paradox and at the same time a work of polemic (Bowen, 259), spanning the abuses of the Church and false science. The contemporary annotator of this copy, probably the F. Hassek of the concealed inscription and monogram, highlighted passages against astrology, black magic, references to Agrippa s work on occult philosophy, theories of the soul, pimps, the arts of women and cookery. He was knowledgeable as he identified a mistake, where Agrippa used Kirannides to mean the name of the author, not the title of his book. The unusual, contemporary Netherlandish binding, panel-stamped and signed by the obscure K.O., is not listed in Fogelmark s Flemish and Related Panel-Stamped Bindings or major bookbinding bibliographies. The stylised imperial escutcheon with the double-headed eagle and the columns with Charles V's motto Plus Ultra are reminiscent of BL c46b21. Only three copies recorded in the US. VD16 ZV 271; Cantamessa n.73 (mentioned); Caillet I, 87 (later eds); Durling (earlier eds); Duveen p.6 (earlier eds). Not in Brunet or Ferguson. B.C. Bowen, Cornelius Agrippa s De Vanitate: Polemic or Paradox? , Bib. d Humanisme et Ren. 34 (1972), 249-56. L3053

Sachgebiete: Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Occulta, Philosophie

05.08.2026 - 12:28

5000,- EUR

Sokol Books Ltd

FUNERAL ORATIONS – CHILDREN – SWITZERLAND.

Abel Merian: Einige Worte des Trostes und der Beruhigung. Gesprochen bey der Beerdigung des gutgearteten und vielversprechenden Knaben Joh. Heinrich Bachofens, von Basel. Auf dem Gottesacker zu Regoldswil, den 26 Brachmonat 1807. von dem theilnehmenden Freunde der tiefgebeugten Aeltern M. Abel Merian, Pfarrer in Brezwil. Basel, Gebrüder von Mechel, [1807]. 16 Seiten. Broschur der Zeit mit hübschem Marmorpapier (in braun, gelb und olivgrün). 10,5 x 17 cm.

Sachgebiete: Flugschriften, Kinderbücher, Papier/Buntpapier, Religion

05.08.2026 - 12:21

450,- EUR

Antiquariat Daniela Kromp

Widmung des bedeutenden russisch-französischen Malers Marc Chagall (1887–1985) an die Familie Dagron.

Die Widmung befindet sich in dem Werk *Chagall et l'âme juive*, das 1932 von Roberto Corréa in Paris herausgegeben wurde. Das Cover dieser Ausgabe zeigt ein Selbstporträt von Marc Chagall, das im Rahmen direkt neben der Widmung platziert wurde. Maße des Rahmens: 37,5 x 47,5 cm (Tiefe: 8 cm)

Sachgebiete: Judaica, Judentum, Kunst nach 1945 , Verlagswesen, Widmungsexemplare

05.08.2026 - 12:17

2400,- EUR

Antiquariat Michael Solder