Rare Books Berlin - Internationale Messe für Bücher und Graphik

[ALLEMAGNE - PRINCE DE HANOVRE]. Zur Erinnerung an den 10. August 1861

30.07.2026 - 17:57

1200,- EUR

Pingel Rare Books

WEIR, JOANNE [WEYER, JOHANN]

EXPANDED EDITION - INCLUDES THE INDEX OF DEMONS De Praestigiis Daemonum, Et Incantationibus ac ueneficiis,  Fourth edition, [2], 3-697, [55]pp., woodcut printers device to title, early ownership mark to title, early ink marginalia and underlining, later endpapers, later vellum over boards, hinges repaired, 8vo (183 x 120mm), Basel: Oporinus, 1568. “Those who err should be brought gently home, not incarcerated with punitive ferocity.”  Johann Weyer, a respected Lutheran physician at the court of William III, was one of the first to protest against the persecution of witches. He is considered "the founder of medical psychiatry" (Garrison-Morton), and a human rights defender avant la lettre. He published on rare diseases and sexual abuse. Weyer influenced contemporaries such as Michel de Montaigne and later thinkers such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. After studying at the University of Paris, Weyer apprenticed under Agrippa of Nettesheim from 1530 to 1534. The poetic, mysterious and liberal-minded Agrippa was also an outspoken critic of witch persecution.  Weyer sought to derogate the law concerning witchcraft prosecution, using two forms of thinking. He argued that those accused of practising witchcraft were mentally ill - suffering from “melancholia” - and the confessions they made were actually delusions of the mind. By arguing that the moral weakness in women made them easy prey to Satan’s temptations, Weyer started one of the most vigorous and enduring controversies surrounding demonology and the witch in the early modern period. Weyer powerfully argues the case for leniency to the repentant and eloquently rejects the assimilation of witchcraft to heresy. He insisted that women were neither helped nor healed by torture or burning, but that they rather needed the healing power of prayer, religious instruction, medical intervention, and meditative isolation. He bolstered this attack on realist demonology with medical authorities as well as his own clinical experience as a practising physician. Whilst he is right to insist on the relevance of medical diagnosis in many cases of witchcraft, medicine was then too primitive to suggest convincing explanations. Weyer’s most important contribution in the field of medical diagnosis may be the understanding that undernourishment was the cause of much witchcraft melancholia.  Medical and juridical objections often went hand in hand. Weyer challenged demonologists on a legal terrain, attacking the prosecution's reliance on a confession, the point where demonology’s theoretical and practical endeavours converged. Weyer attempts to demolish various witch confessions, notably he publicly attacked the trials of the Wurttemberg preachers, attesting they were illegal, since the death penalties could be imposed only in cases of maleficent magic, not for mere fantasies. Weyer was careful to specify that he did not doubt the reality of witchcraft, but only its relevance to the majority of prosecutions.  Weyer has become a symbol of courage and lucidity in the face of intolerance and ignorance, but he was not quite as radical as it would seem. Despite Weyer’s appeal for a greater tolerance towards alleged witches, he also wants greater severity towards male magicians, who Weyer perceived as actual practitioners of natural or demonic magic. It has been suggested that in its very conception, this work is an ideological attack on Catholic idolatry and superstition, rather than a radical stand against the cruel persecution of witches.  The reaction to De Praestigiis Daemonum was formidable. Weyer had chosen to publish his book precisely at the moment when the witch-craze, after a long lull, was beginning again. That, indeed, was what had provoked him to write. But this Erasmian Platonist was no longer heard by a generation that had repudiated Erasmus. A fellow physician might hail him as a prophet of enlightenment, but his other readers thought differently. Weyer was told by his friends that his book must be destroyed or rewritten; by his enemies that he was a lunatic.  Yet Johann Weyer shaped opposition to witch hunting for generations. Demonologists who wrote after him took care to demolish his arguments, and Bodin’s famous Demonomanie de sorciers includes a lengthy rebuttal of De praestigiis. Yet as they engaged with Weyer’s ideas, their own thought was shaped by his. [ADB XLII, p. 266; Garrison-Morton 4916; Robbins (1972), Encyclopedia of Witchcraft; Thorndike, L. (1941). A History of Magic and Experimental Science, pp. 515-516.; Witchcraze, Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Europe, Roper, 2004; Witches, Devils, and Doctors in the Renaissance: Johann Weyer, Mora, 1991; The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America, 2013; Ideas and Cultural Margins in Early Modern Germany, 2009; The Damned art : essays in the literature of witchcraft, 1977] 

Sachgebiete: Jura, Occulta, Theologie

30.07.2026 - 17:52

8700,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books

VOLCKMANN, GEORG ANTON.

BOTANICAL MANUSCRIPT WITH 245 WATERCOLOURS OF WILD AND GARDEN FLOWERS OF SILESIA Sciagraphia et Icones Plantarum Indigenarum, maxime vero Exoticas jum turissimo labore collectarum à vivis depicta additis synonymis et locus natalibus singulari industria et penicillo … A Very Fine Herbarium and Botanical Folio with 245 Full Page Watercolours with Manuscript Descriptive Text Leaf to Each Drawing. Finely executed and carefully coloured drawings with manuscript captions and descriptive manuscript text leaf to each watercolour. Extensive manuscript with 245 Watercolours of Garden Flowers; Wild Flowers and Plants of Silesia. Legnica/ Silesia circa 1690/1700 , Folio (320 x 220 mm). with Manuscript title, 254 Latin descriptions all but 10 on separate leaves, mostly interleaved, 245 watercolours on 245 leaves, Later calf with gilt printed morocco label on cover: “Hr Ct Dubois. Buttes”, Title page a little stained and mounted at time of binding, overall in excellent condition. The 245 full-page watercolours executed in gouache and opaque colours are titled in ink with latin names Extensive, yet unrecorded botanical manuscript on the Silesian wild and garden flora by the well - known Silesian physician and naturalist Georg Anton Volckmann (1664 - 1721), who is still known today as the author of the geological work ‘Silesia Subterranea’, printed in 1720, which includes elaborate sketches of fossils including Carboniferous plants from the Lower Silesia region.  Georg Anton Volckmann was the son of the botanist Israel Volkmann (1636 - 1706), whose fundamental collection ‘Phytologia magna’ he continued. The series on the Silesian wild and garden flora, comprising a total of 10 volumes was written between 1666 and 1716, but never printed; the manuscripts are now in the Saxon State and University Library (SLUB) Dresden: Mscr.Dresd.B116-125.  The renowned Liegnitz physician Dr. Israel Volckmann and subsequently his son Dr. Georg Anton Volckmann wrote the manuscript in their own hands and illustrated the work with plant depictions, sometimes accompanied by insects, after nature in watercolours and opaque colours. The names commonly used in older botanical literature and the medicinal uses of the plants are recorded on the reverse of the nearly 3.600 leaves. The work was intended for publication but would have been too expensive because of the many copper plates required.  This manuscript might be a condensed or shorter version of these 10 vols. also intended to be published which however never happened. Georg Anton Volckmann was born in Liegnitz/ Legnica in 1663, studied medicine (where is unknown; only his stay in Padua is known) and settled as a doctor in Legnica/Silesia around 1687. His father was the doctor Israel Volckmann, born on 6 December 1636 in Nikolstadtnear Legnica, where his father was a priest from 1630-1633, attended the town school in Legnica, then the Elisabeth gymnasium in Wroclaw, studied medicine and philosophy in Leipzig from 1655 to 1659 and, after a stay in Italy, settled as a doctor in Legnica in 1660 or 1661, his mother was Ursula Marianne née Schultheß. His father introduced Georg Anton to botany at an early stage and, from 1687 onwards, entrusted him with the continuation of his ‘Phytologia magna’ (vol. I, 1666/68; II, 1668/70; III, 1670; IV, 1671/77; V, 1678/85), a large manuscript work with his own plant drawings, which his son enlarged by a further five volumes (VI, 1678/85). 5 volumes (VI, 1686/89; VII, 1689/91; VIII, 1692/97; IX, 1698/1703; X, 1704/18). Georg Anton’s drawings are more artistic, his locations more varied than those of his father, who died in Legnica on 5 February 1706. This magnificent work came with G. A. Volckmann’s collection to Dresden, first to the Zwingers collection of vegetation, later to the State Library. G. A. Volckmann explored Silesia on numerous journeys; he recorded his mineralogical, geological and prehistoric observations in ‘Silesia subterranea’ (Leipzig 1720). He also produced a handwritten ‘Historia Conchyliorum’ and an ‘Ornithologia’ (before 1712, now lost) as well as a collection of Silesian town coats of arms drawn by him. He analysed the water of the Hedwigsbrunnen fountain discovered in the Grüntal valley near Legnica; in 1716, together with Maximilian Preuß, Gottfried David Mayer and Gottfried Ernst Wilhelm, he described the health springs in Skarsine. He undertook excavations at Töpferberg in 1697/98 and 1707, at Simsdorf near Legnica in 1712 and at Großendorf near Steinau in 1716.  Volckmann died on 21 March 1721  Reference: H. Neumann, ‚Liegnitzer Naturforscher’ in Mitt. d. Gesch. u. Altertums Ver. Liegnitz, Heft 8, 1920/21, Liegnitz 1922, p. 246-262); Heinrich Robert Göppert, Über ältereschlesische Pflanzenkunde als Beitrag zur vaterländischen Kulturgeschichte, Schles. Provinzialbl., 96, pp. 1–27. Provenance: Maybe looted property in the Napoleonic Wars, as an ownership note of a French officer ‘à l’ Etat major du 5 corps d’ armée à Breslau, le 12 may 1808 is on the title. Later added ownership note “à Ami Dubois”, dated July 1836; since then privately owned in Switzerland.

Sachgebiete: Papier/Buntpapier, Botanik, Handschriften, Naturwissenschaften

30.07.2026 - 17:50

58500,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books

THE SPANISH FORGER

A Musician with a Music Box Leading a Noble Couple Perhaps Just Wed with an Ladies Attendant and Following of Nobles. Grand House in Background. Illuminated Miniature France, circa 1900. Sheet size 23.5 x 16.5 cm. Miniature in coloured overpainting with gold, framed in a coloured Blue & Pink Border, Gold Sky, white-highlighted border with gold lozenges. Verso square musical notes on four red lines with Latin text and a fleur-de-lis initial. Mounted. A beautiful and characteristic miniature by the so-called Spanish Forger , one of the greatest imitators of medieval book art in modern times. The artist, whose identity remains unknown, probably lived in France around 1900. For his high-quality miniatures, he mostly used parchment from old manuscripts. Another characteristic is the sweetly cheerful expression of the depicted faces, which is atypical for the serious and pious expression of medieval paintings. "The Spanish Forger was one of the most skillful, successful, and prolific forgers of all time. Until recently, his numerous panels, manuscripts, and single leaves were appreciated and admired as genuine fifteenth- and sixteenth-century works. Now they are increasingly sold and collected as forgeries " (Voelkle, p. 9).

Sachgebiete: Buchmalerei

30.07.2026 - 17:47

14000,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books

James Cook

Voyage dans l'hémisphère austral, et autour du monde, fait sur les vaisseaux de roi, l'Aventure & la Résolution, en 1772, 1773, 1774 & 1775 ... Dans lequel on a inséré la relation du Capitaine Furneaux, & celle de MM. Forster. Traduit de l'anglois par J.B.A. Suard. Paris, Hôtel de Thou, 1778. 7 Bände Text in 8° sowie ein Atlasband in 4°. Mit 66, größtenteils gefalteten prachtvollen Kupfertafeln (Ansichten von Küsten und Häfen, ethnographische Darstellungen der Insulaner Polynesiens, Melanesiens und Feuerlands, botanische und zoologische Tafeln, Abbildungen von Geräten, Waffen und Wasserfahrzeugen). Zeitgenössischer Ledereinband, Rücken jeweils mit zwei goldgeprägten Rückenschildern und reicher floraler Rückenvergoldung; der Atlasband in stilistisch der Zeit angepasstem Halbleder mit ebensolcher Rückenvergoldung und zwei Rückenschildern. Minimal berieben und an den Kanten leicht beschabt, insgesamt jedoch ein bemerkenswert wohlerhaltenes, dekoratives Exemplar. Beddie 1223; Cox I, 60; Henze I, 543 ff.; Sabin 16249; O'Reilly, Tahiti, 419. - Erste französische Ausgabe der offiziellen, von Cook selbst verfassten Darstellung seiner zweiten Weltumsegelung (1772–1775) an Bord der Resolution, begleitet von der Adventure unter Kapitän Tobias Furneaux. Die Reise war unmittelbar von der Royal Society und der britischen Admiralität mit dem Ziel initiiert worden, die seit der Antike diskutierte Hypothese eines großen, bewohnbaren südlichen Kontinents – der sogenannten Terra australis incognita – endgültig zu klären. Cook durchsegelte hierfür als erster Seefahrer den Südlichen Ozean in mehreren Vorstößen bis über den 71. Breitengrad hinaus, überquerte dreimal den Südpolarkreis und konnte durch dieses systematische Vorgehen die Nichtexistenz eines bewohnbaren Südkontinents in gemäßigten Breiten schlüssig widerlegen. Damit setzte er einen der folgenreichsten Wendepunkte der geographischen Entdeckungsgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Die Expedition gilt zugleich als die erste eigentliche wissenschaftliche Forschungsfahrt in polare Gewässer. An Bord befanden sich mit Johann Reinhold Forster und seinem Sohn Georg Forster zwei der bedeutendsten Naturforscher ihrer Zeit, die im Auftrag der Royal Society umfassende botanische, zoologische und ethnographische Beobachtungen sammelten. Georg Forsters eigenständiger Bericht A Voyage Round the World (1777) gilt heute als Meilenstein der wissenschaftlichen Reiseliteratur und beeinflusste maßgeblich Alexander von Humboldts spätere Forschungsreisen. Die in Suards Übersetzung eingearbeiteten Passagen der Forsterschen Aufzeichnungen verleihen der vorliegenden französischen Ausgabe einen eigenständigen wissenschaftlichen Wert gegenüber dem reinen Cookschen Originaltext. Kapitän Furneaux' separat integrierter Bericht dokumentiert die Erlebnisse der durch einen Sturm von der Resolution getrennten Adventure, darunter die Erkundung Van-Diemens-Landes (Tasmanien) und den tragischen Zwischenfall mit Teilen der Besatzung in der Bucht von Grass Cove auf Neuseeland. Zu den geographischen Ergebnissen der Expedition zählt ferner die Entdeckung der Südlichen Sandwichinseln sowie die Vermessung zahlreicher pazifischer Inselgruppen. Die 66 Kupfertafeln, nach den an Bord entstandenen Zeichnungen William Hodges' gestochen, zählen zu den frühesten und ethnographisch bedeutendsten bildlichen Dokumenten des Südpazifiks und Feuerlands und besitzen über ihren dokumentarischen Wert hinaus auch kunsthistorischen Rang als Zeugnisse der aufklärerischen Bildwissenschaft. Beigebunden (Bd. 7): [RICKMAN, John]. Troisième voyage de Cook, ou journal d'une expédition faite dans la mer Pacifique du sud & du nord, en 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 & 1780. Paris, Berlin, 1782. Zweite Ausgabe der französischen Übersetzung von J.-N. Démeunier, mit einem gefalteten Frontispiz und einer gefalteten Karte. Rickmans – zunächst anonym erschienener – Bericht über Cooks dritte und letzte Reise, während der der Entdecker 1779 auf Hawaii den Tod fand, ergänzt die Sammlung um den chronologischen Abschluss der Cookschen Pazifikexpeditionen. Es fehlt der Reihentitel in Bd. 2; ansonsten ein insgesamt sehr schön erhaltenes, vollständiges Exemplar dieses für die Geschichte der Geographie, Ethnographie und Naturwissenschaften gleichermaßen bedeutenden Reisewerks der europäischen Aufklärung. - 7 text volumes in octavo, plus an atlas volume in quarto. With 66, mostly folding, copper-engraved plates (views of coasts and harbours, ethnographic depictions of the islanders of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Tierra del Fuego, botanical and zoological plates, and images of implements, weapons, and watercraft). Contemporary leather bindings, each spine with two gilt-lettered labels and richly gilt-tooled decoration; the atlas volume in half-leather executed in the style of the period, with matching gilt spine decoration and two spine labels. Minor rubbing and slight chafing to the extremities, but overall a remarkably well-preserved and handsome set. First French edition of the official account—written by Cook himself—of his second circumnavigation of the globe (1772–1775) aboard the Resolution, accompanied by the Adventure under Captain Tobias Furneaux. The expedition had been commissioned directly by the Royal Society and the British Admiralty with the aim of finally resolving the question, debated since antiquity, of a great habitable southern continent—the so-called Terra Australis Incognita. Cook was the first navigator to systematically penetrate the Southern Ocean in repeated forays beyond the 71st parallel, crossing the Antarctic Circle three times, and through this methodical approach was able to conclusively disprove the existence of any habitable southern continent in temperate latitudes. This achievement marks one of the most consequential turning points in the history of geographical discovery in the eighteenth century. The expedition is likewise regarded as the first genuine scientific research voyage into polar waters. On board were Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster, two of the most eminent naturalists of their age, who—commissioned by the Royal Society—gathered extensive botanical, zoological, and ethnographic observations. Georg Forster's independent account, A Voyage Round the World (1777), is today considered a landmark of scientific travel literature and significantly influenced Alexander von Humboldt's later expeditions. The passages from the Forsters' records incorporated into Suard's translation lend this French edition a distinct scientific value beyond Cook's original text alone. Captain Furneaux's separately integrated narrative documents the experiences of the Adventure, which had been separated from the Resolution by a storm, including the exploration of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and the tragic incident involving members of the crew at Grass Cove in New Zealand. Among the expedition's geographical achievements was the discovery of the South Sandwich Islands, along with the surveying of numerous Pacific island groups. The 66 copper plates, engraved after drawings made on board by William Hodges, rank among the earliest and most ethnographically significant pictorial documents of the South Pacific and Tierra del Fuego, and beyond their documentary value hold considerable art-historical importance as testimonies to Enlightenment-era visual science. Bound in (Vol. 7): [RICKMAN, John]. Troisième voyage de Cook, ou journal d'une expédition faite dans la mer Pacifique du sud & du nord, en 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779 & 1780. Paris, Berlin, 1782. Second edition of the French translation by J.-N. Démeunier, with one folding frontispiece and one folding map. Rickman's account—initially published anonymously—of Cook's third and final voyage, during which the explorer met his death in Hawaii in 1779, rounds out the collection with the chronological conclusion of Cook's Pacific expeditions. The half-title is lacking in Vol. 2; otherwise a wholly attractive, complete set of this travel work of the European Enlightenment, of equal importance to the history of geography, ethnography, and the natural sciences.

Sachgebiete: Illustrierte Bücher, Ozeanologie, Reisen/Reiseliteratur

30.07.2026 - 17:44

3500,- EUR

Jeschke Jádi Auctions Berlin GmbH

SHELLEY, G.E.

PRESENTATION COPY OF SHELLEY’S SUN-BIRDS A Monograph of the Nectariniidae, or Family of Sun-Birds. London, published by the author, 1876-1880. 4to (318 x 247mm). With 121 hand-coloured lithographed plates by Keulemans. Later Full Blue Morocco Gilt, Original Wrappers Bound In. PRESENTATION COPY FROM THE AUTHOR TO GERALD WALLER  Inscribed Gerald Waller, from the Author 4/10/80" A very attractive clean copy of one of the most beautifully illustrated works by J.G. Keulemans. "An excellent monograph of an interesting family of birds, with descriptions in Latin and English, critical notes, and discussions of habits, etc., from accounts by many different observers. A total of 138 species of the group arerecognized..."(Zimmer II, 588). "Keulemans paid particular attention to colour and structure of feathering and his ability to transmit clear, accurate impressions of various plumages was held in much esteem. Overall, his skills for accurate representations are attributable to his detailed study of birds. He was a keen naturalist and to judge from the narratives of his observations, a field ornithologist of note. These attributes often stood him in good stead, as when his specialized knowledge of a particular species made it unnecessary for the author to check anatomical authenticity. As Shelley points out in the Preface to his Sun Birds: 'The illustrations, which form such an important portion of my Monograph, have been executed by Mr Keulemans, whose name is sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of the details and for high artistic skill. The latter is rendered perhaps more striking from his being acquainted with this family of birds in their native haunts; and his notes upon the Sun-birds inhabiting Prince Island have been incorporated in my work'" (Keulemans & Coldewey, 'Feathers to Brush. The Victorian bird artist John Gerard Keulemans' p. 42. The feathering is highlighted in places by the application of gum arabic. Without notes for binders slip. Usually missing. Provenance: Gerald Waller, from the Author 4/10/80" Nissen IVB, 873; Zimmer II, 588

Sachgebiete: Naturwissenschaften, Ornithologie, Zoologie

30.07.2026 - 17:43

14600,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books

SADASUKE, IMAIZUMI

[Kojitsu Sosho] Yosha zuko fuzu kojo kojitsu sosho/ Figures and studies of palanquins and cars Tokyo: Yoshikawa Hanshichi, 1900 2 vols., 24pp.; 36pp., double page title, otherwise comprised of 29 brilliant double page woodblock illustrations and diagrams of traditional palanquins and carriages, some discolouration from old reinforcements at the fold of some plates (appear to be Japanese washi paper, but discoloured with acidic paste), accordion books, original boards, folio, a good set, complete in 2 volumes.  Part of Kojitsu Sosho, a series of Japanese books published in the Meiji period (1868-1912) that documented ancient customs and objects, edited by Shinto scholar Imaizumi Sadasuke. Sadasuke believed that Meiji period academics were excessively focused on Western thoughts and ideas, so wrote many books on Japanese traditional culture and customs to counteract this trend. He became director of the Institute of Japanese Classics Research, the central government organisation for the training of Shinto priests, in 1918. His series offered detailed, illustrated volumes on various subjects such as ceremonial clothing, textile patterns, samurai armour, etc.  The colour woodblock prints are brilliantly preserved.

Sachgebiete: Papier/Buntpapier, Japan, Japanische Holzschnitte, Reisen/Reiseliteratur

30.07.2026 - 17:36

3000,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books

ROSSETTI, DANTE GABRIEL 

Sonnets and Lyrical Poems, limited to 316 copies, this copy one of 310 on paper, printed in red and black in Golden type, elaborated wood-engraved border and initials designed by William Morris, mostly unopened, very faint spotting to endpapers, original limp vellum, silk ties, light spotting as usual , 8vo,Kelmscott Press, 1894 [Peterson A20a]

Sachgebiete: Handwerk, Kunsthandwerk, Pressendrucke, Großbritannien

30.07.2026 - 17:34

6900,- EUR

Marshall Rare Books