ILAB Joins the Protest Against Amazon’s Bid to Control Top-Level Domain Names
Today, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has joined the numerous other organizations, such as the Authors Guild or the American Association of Publishers, objecting to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN’s) plan to sell top-level domains to private companies. Online retail giant Amazon has bid to be the exclusive custodian of .book, .author and .read domains. Read more ...
Paris 2014 - 41st ILAB Congress
The ILAB and SLAM committees are very pleased to announce that the 41st ILAB Congress will run in Paris from the 13th to 16th April, 2014, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of SLAM. The Paris Congress will immediately follow the International Antiquarian Book Fair at the Grand Palais scheduled from 10th to 13th of April 2014. We hope that the very special program that we have planned will attract numerous visitors to Paris and we are looking forward to meeting our new colleagues and welcoming old friends.
Anne Lamort, President SLAM, Tom Congalton, President ILAB
16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography
The 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography will be awarded in 2014 to one or more books about books published in any language and in any part of the world between 2009 and 2012. Publishers, librarians, collectors, antiquarian booksellers and all book lovers are very welcome to submit books to the prize until the end of April 2013 by sending a single copy to the Prize Secretary.
Support scholarship! Submit books to the most prestigious prize until April 2013!
The World’s Expert Antiquarian Booksellers - In 1 Book!
The new edition of the ILAB Directory contains all names, addresses and specialities of the ILAB dealers who are organized in 22 national associations and who are located in 32 countries all over the world. Have a look!
“Book collecting is and almost always has been a vibrant, exciting and engaging pastime"
"It’s our job to make others understand that.” An interview with ILAB President Tom Congalton about his career, his favourite books, Between the Covers, collecting, ILAB and the future of the trade. Read it!
ILAB Booksellers on Video
"A wonderful snapshot of the rich history of both the ABAA and the rare book trade" - ILAB is proud to present the video archive project by Michael Ginsberg and Taylor Bowie. Recently added: interviews with two amazing ladies: Marguerite Goldschmidt and Florence Shay.
"Out of the classroom and into the world" - ILAB Internships
ILAB has launched an internship program for young antiquarian book dealers. Alena Lavrenova, Anastasya Zhikhareva, and other young antiquarian booksellers from Russia, spent several weeks in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and the United States. Read their exciting reports and join our new Facebook Group!
The World's Best Booksellers Met in Switzerland
From 22 to 26 September the presidents of 22 national antiquarian booksellers' associations and rare book dealers from all over the world met for their 40th Congress in Lucerne. Besides the meetings and elections on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, they climbed high mountains and dark caves and visited Switzerland's most outstanding museums and private collections. Read the online diary!
Old and Rare Books. From ILAB: the one stop FREE App for all lovers of rare books
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) has launched an ILAB Moile App which is now available in the Apple Store and the Android Market. Search for “ILAB rare books” or “International League of Antiquarian Booksellers” to find the free App ready to install on your phone.
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Book FairsRare Books - Next Fairs
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08 Jun 2013 - 09 Jun 2013
The largest Antique Map Fair in Europe, established 1980, brings together around 40 of the leading national and international antiquarian map dealers as well as hundreds of visiting dealers,... [+] More
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09 Jun 2013
Dealers from the UK and abroad offer fine bindings, antiquarian, illustrated books, travel, modern firsts, children’s books, maps, prints, and ephemera. [+] More
EventsRare Books - Next Events
BooksellersAntiquarian Booksellers
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Vassonville - FRANCE
Specialties: Children's books, Literature, Medicine, Modern first editions, Modern illustrated books, Old and rare books
Most recent catalogue:
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Rare Book Gallery
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Harmonices Mundi Libri V
KEPLER, Johannes
Bookseller: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc.
Five engraved plates & numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 4 p.l., 66 (i.e. 64), 255 pp. Folio, cont. vellum over boards... MoreFive engraved plates & numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 4 p.l., 66 (i.e. 64), 255 pp. Folio, cont. vellum over boards (binding a little warped, bottom corner of lower cover a little worn, occasional browning but rather less than usual), ties gone. Linz: J. Planck for G. Tampach, 1619. First edition, first issue, and a fine copy of this great book. Copies of the first issue are distinctly rare. This epochal work contains Kepler's discovery of the third law of planetary motion. Kepler regarded this work as his crowning achievement in elucidating the harmonic regularities of the universe. It was Kepler's three laws which formed the basis of Newton's principle of universal gravitation. "In the Mysterium cosmographicum the young Kepler had been satisfied with the rather approximate planetary spacings predicted by his nested polyhedrons and spheres; now [in 1619], imbued with a new respect for data, he could no longer dismiss its 5 percent error. In the astronomical book V of the Harmonice mundi, he came to grips with this central problem: By what secondary principles did God adjust the original archetypal model based on the regular solids?... "In the course of this investigation, Kepler hit upon the relation now called his third or harmonic law: The ratio that exists between the periodic times of any two planets is precisely the ratio of the 3/2 power of the mean distances...the law gave him great pleasure, for it so neatly linked the planetary distances with their velocities or periods, thus fortifying the a priori premises of the Mysterium and the Harmonice."-D.S.B., VII, pp. 301-02. An attractive copy in a contemporary binding. Two cm. strip at head of title clipped away and renewed at an early date, small rectangle (2.5 x 1.5 cm.) of blank portion of title renewed at a more recent date, and two small burn holes in title caused by an ink inscription. Several early inscriptions on title including: "auctori damnari et operis cum expurgat neo permissi." ❧ Caspar 58. Dibner, Heralds of Science, 6. Gingerich, Rara Astronomica, 33. Horblit 58. Printing & the Mind of Man 112. Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 115. . Less
Price: 235000.00 USD
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[MANUSCRIPT LETTER, SIGNED BY JOHN PAUL JONES, ORDERING A MEMBER OF THE...
Jones, John Paul:
Bookseller: William Reese Company - Americana
![[MANUSCRIPT LETTER, SIGNED BY JOHN PAUL JONES, ORDERING A MEMBER OF THE MARINES TO ATTEND A COURT MARTIAL ON BOARD HIS SHIP, THE BONHOMME RICHARD]](http://www.ilab.org/thumb/book/96/80/80/image.jpg)
On Board the Bonhomme Richard at L'Orient, France. June 14, 1779.. [1]p. manuscript letter on a folded folio sheet. Docketed on the fourth page and... MoreOn Board the Bonhomme Richard at L'Orient, France. June 14, 1779.. [1]p. manuscript letter on a folded folio sheet. Docketed on the fourth page and addressed in Jones's hand to "Captain M[atthew] Parke of the Marine troops." Sheet strengthened around the edges, closed tear mended in the second sheet. Very good. In a half morocco and cloth folding box, spine gilt. A very interesting manuscript letter, signed by Captain John Paul Jones as commander the American squadron off the coast of Europe, ordering Matthew Parke, a member of the Marine troops, to attend a court martial on board his ship, the Bonhomme Richard. Jones would gain everlasting fame and glory just a few weeks after he signed this letter, when he captured the HMS Serapis in the North Sea. In 1779 John Paul Jones took command of a 900-ton French East Indiaman, armed and renamed Bonhomme Richard as a compliment to his patron, Benjamin Franklin. The outfitting of the ship in the port of L'Orient consumed several months, and it was not ready for sea until June. The ship's crew was originally formed of prisoners taken from English ships by the French. Evidently, a group of these prisoner-sailors conspired to capture the ship, and Jones ordered their court martial to take place on June 15 on board the Bonhomme Richard. The manuscript text, signed by Jones in his own hand at the end, reads: "By the Honble. John P. Jones Captain in the American Navy and Commander in Chief of the American Squadron now in Europe. Sir you are hereby required and directed to attend at a Court Martial to be held on board the Bon homme [sic] Richard tomorrow for the Trial of James Enion, John Atwood, John Lomney, John Balch, John Layton, Andrew Thompson, George Johnston, William Carmichael, Alexander Cooper, William Hanover, Thomas Cole and Nathaniel Bonner - all of whom have been put under confinement by Lieutenant John Brown for mutinous behaviour and for refusing to do their duty on board the American ship of war the Bon homme Richard. You are also to try any other person or persons belonging to the American service who may in the course of the evidence appear to have been principally concerned in that mutiny - for which this shall be your order. Given on board the Bon homme Richard at L'Orient the 14th day of June 1779." Along with the letter, laid into a compartment in the box, is a commemorative medal, 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches, with a portrait on the recto of Jones after the bust by Houdon, and an allegorical scene on the verso entitled "America claims her illustrious dead - Paris Annapolis 1905." The medal was issued to commemorate the exhumation and re- burial of Jones's body from beneath the streets of Paris to its final resting place in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1905. Any substantive, Revolutionary-era John Paul Jones letters or manuscripts are extremely rare in the market. This is an especially interesting and displayable artifact of Jones' tenure as commander of the Bonhomme Richard, with several references to the ship, where he earned his greatest fame during the Revolution. Less
Price: 75000.00 USD
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ISAGOGE IN TYPUM COSMOGRAPHICUM SEU MAPPAM MUNDI
Apianus, Petrus:
Bookseller: William Reese Company - Americana
Landschut: Joannem Weyssenburger, [1521].. [8]pp. Woodcut map on titlepage. Small quarto. Modern three-quarter vellum and marbled boards, leather... MoreLandschut: Joannem Weyssenburger, [1521].. [8]pp. Woodcut map on titlepage. Small quarto. Modern three-quarter vellum and marbled boards, leather label on cover. Very good. In a red half morocco and cloth slipcase. First edition of geographer Peter Apianus' first printed work, describing a large world map of which no copy has survived. The ellipsoidal map herein described is thought to have been based on the great Waldseem?r map of 1507, the first world map to use the term "America." Published about four years before his COSMOGRAPHICUS LIBER (which passed through thirty-five editions in the 16th century), the ISAGOGE is divided into twelve "Propositiones" showing how to use the map. Many of the comments and instructions in this guide are intended to explain the use of the map for astronomical and calendrical calculations. In his preface, he mentions his "Cosmography," which was not published until 1524, and which still stands as a foundational work on the subject. The preliminary section of the ISAGOGE was reissued in part in his DECLARATIO ET USUS TYPE COSMOGRAPHICI at Regensburg, probably the next year. "Harrisse, who knew this 'rare pamphlet' only in the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, believed that it could not describe the 1520 map and argued ingeniously that the 1520 map was published at the expense of Luc Alantse, whereas the ISAGOGE was dedicated to the Duke of Saxony. Ducal patronage would almost certainly supersede that of a private citizen. The James Ford Bell catalogue dates the ISAGOGE to 1520. Weyssenberger was the publisher of both the ISAGOGE and the COSMOGRAPHICUS LIBER. The map described in the ISAGOGE, although no copy is known, is a landmark in the history of the geography of the New World and this pamphlet describing it is an Americanum of the greatest rarity and cartographical significance" - Nebenzahl. Apianus was a Professor of Mathematics in Vienna, as well as a mapmaker, writer, and leading authority on cosmography - a subject encompassing astronomy, geography, and cartography. The woodcut map on the title of the ISAGOGE shows Europe, Asia and Africa, with Venice, Portugal, and "Callicut" (i.e. Kozhikode) identified. Very rare in the market, with only three copies traced for sale in the last century. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 521/2. BELL CATALOGUE A-280. VAN ORTROY, BIBLIOGRAPHIE DE L'OEUVRE DE PIERRE APIAN 10. HARRISSE, HISTORY OF AMERICA, p.534. BAGROW, HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY, p.130. STILLWELL I:22. NEBENZAHL CATALOGUE 12:9. LeCLERC 31. SHIRLEY, MAPPING OF THE WORLD 45 (ref). Less
Price: 85000.00 USD
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THE BIRDS OF AMERICA
Audubon, John James:
Bookseller: William Reese Company - Americana
New York & Amsterdam: Printed in Holland for the Johnson Reprint Corporation and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1971-1972.. Four volumes. Limitation... MoreNew York & Amsterdam: Printed in Holland for the Johnson Reprint Corporation and Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1971-1972.. Four volumes. Limitation leaf printed recto only in black, 4 general titles, 4 volume titles, 4 printed facsimiles of the original titles. 435 plates, printed in up to eight colors, after John James Audubon. Double elephant folio. Original brown half calf over green cloth-covered boards, upper covers with inset brown in calf panel lettered in gilt with author and title, the flat spines lettered in gilt with author, title and volume number. Leather somewhat scuffed, internally fine. The "Amsterdam Audubon" was limited to only 250 copies. A viable alternative to the original Havell edition, and one of only two full-size facsimile editions of the complete work ever published. In October 1971, employing the most faithful printing method available, the best materials and the ablest craftsmen of their age, the Amsterdam firm of Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd., in conjunction with the Johnson Reprint Corporation of New York, set out to produce the finest possible limited edition facsimile of the greatest bird book ever printed: the Havell edition of John James Audubon's well-loved BIRDS OF AMERICA. The Teyler Museum in Haarlem, Holland made their copy of the original work available for use as a model. The Museum had bought their copy through Audubon's son as part of the original subscription in 1839. After long deliberation, the extremely complex but highly accurate process of color photo-lithography was chosen as the most appropriate printing method. The best exponents of this art were the renowned Dutch printing firm of NV Fotolitho Inrichting Drommel at Zandvoort who were willing to undertake the task of printing each plate in up to eight different colors. The original Havell edition was published on handmade rag paper and the publishers were determined that the paper of their edition should match the original. Unhappy with the commercially available papers, they turned to the traditional paper manufacturers G. Schut & Zonen (founded in 1625), who, using 100% unbleached cotton rags, were able to produce a wove paper of the highest quality, with each sheet bearing a watermark unique to the edition: G. Schut & Zonen [JR monogram] Audubon [OT monogram]. The publishers and their dedicated team completed their task late in 1972 and the results of these labors became known as the "Amsterdam Audubon." 250 copies were published and sold by subscription, with the plates available bound or unbound. Given all this careful preparation, it is not surprising that the prints have the look and feel of the original Havell edition. The Havell edition was expensive at the time of publication and this has not changed. The last complete copy to appear on the market sold for more than $10,000,000 in London in 2010, and the increasingly rare individual plates from this edition, when they do appear, generally sell for between $2,500 and $150,000 depending on the image. The quality of the Amsterdam Audubon plates is apparent to any discerning collector and it is becoming ever clearer that they offer the most attractive alternative to the Havell edition plates, given the latter's spiraling prices. The idea for his great work came to Audubon after his meeting with the distinguished ornithologist Alexander Wilson at Louisville in 1810, but it was not until 1826 that he felt ready to set sail for England in search of a publisher. In the intervening sixteen years he had time both to perfect his style of drawing from specimens mounted on wires as an aid to composition, to assemble a remarkable portfolio of drawings, and, perhaps most importantly, to develop the single-minded determination that was to be so essential in his efforts to realize his ambition. John James Audubon, the illegitimate son of French sea captain Jean Audubon and Mlle Jeannne Rabin, his Creole mistress, was born in Les Cayes, Santo Domingo on April 26, 1785. His mother died soon after his birth and in 1791, Audubon was brought back to France to live at Nantes under the care of his father's wife, Anne Moynet. The arrangement was evidently a happy one, and both Audubon and his half-sister (Jean's illegitimate daughter by another mistress) were legally adopted in 1794. Audubon later wrote that he quickly came to both love and admire his adopted mother, though her indulgence of his preference for exploring the surrounding countryside to attending to his schoolwork, was perhaps largely responsible for his lack of formal education. Audubon's first arrival in America was in 1803, when, following the loss of the family's fortune in Santo Domingo, his father dispatched him to eastern Pennsylvania. He was to stay with a Quaker lawyer, Miers Fisher, who had been acting as Audubon senior's business agent, and represent the family's interests in the development of the lead deposits which had been found on Mill Grove (a farm near Philadelphia, which had been bought, sight unseen, by Audubon's father). It was here that his early interest in drawing bird specimens grew, and here that he met and married (in 1808) Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of a neighbor. They set up home firstly in Louisville, and later Henderson, Kentucky. The new species of birds to be found in the virgin wilderness of Kentucky supplied Audubon with a large number of subjects to both draw and hunt, and allowed him to develop the lifelike action-packed ornithological images that were to become the hallmark of his work. Following his bankruptcy in 1820, Audubon decided to concentrate on his painting, and he set out for Louisiana with the intention of adding to the tally of species captured in his portfolio. During this period he worked as a traveling artist and drawing instructor, drawing birds from Mississippi as well as Louisiana and eventually settling with Lucy near New Orleans at a plantation called Bayou Sara. By 1824 Audubon's plans for THE BIRDS OF AMERICA were coalescing. The work was to be issued in eighty parts of five plates per part, for a total of 400 plates (this was finally expanded to 435 showing some 1,065 different species in eighty-seven parts) on large format paper: this was dictated by Audubon's determination that all the known species were to be shown, and that they should all be life-size. After unsuccessful attempts to get the work published in both Philadelphia and New York, in became clear that the only hope of publication lay in Europe, and Audubon sailed for England in 1826. In England Audubon arranged a number of successful exhibitions of his drawings, where the "dramatic impact of his ambitious, complex pictures and a romantic image as 'the American woodsman' secured Audubon entry into a scientific community much preoccupied with little-known lands." Amongst the friends he made from this community, were William Swainson, a gifted ornithologist, who taught Audubon the niceties of technical ornithology, William MacGillivray, a brilliant Scottish naturalist-anatomist, who, later, was to contribute to and edit Audubon's ORNITHOLOGICAL BIOGRAPHY, and Patrick Neill, printer and zoologist, who recommended William Home Lizars of Edinburgh as an engraver who would do justice to Audubon's work. Lizars was so impressed with Audubon's work that he agreed to put aside the work he was doing for Prideaux John Selby and Sir William Jardine, Britain's foremost ornithologists of the time, and concentrate on the engraving and printing of Audubon's subjects. Lizars' involvement in the project began in 1827, but turned out to be short-lived: after producing only ten plates, all of which are represented in the present selection, Lizars' colorists went on strike and Audubon was forced to find another engraver. This setback proved to be only temporary, however, and Audubon quickly established an excellent working and personal relationship with both Robert Havell, senior, and his son, Robert Havell, junior. Havell senior died in 1832, but between 1828 and 1838 Havell junior was involved as engraver (or in the case of the Havell plates as re-toucher) of all 425 of the images that go to make up the highest achievement of ornithological art and the greatest of all bird books. Less
Price: 80000.00 USD
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Encyclopaedia Britannica
The biggest and best online Encyclopaedia, accurate and up-to-date reference. The articles are written by more than 4,000 contributors and editors chosen from all over the world for their high standing in their fields of expertise. Each article, picture and video is fact-checked by Britannica editors for consistency of style and language level.
L’Encyclopédie
The famous „Encyclopedie“ by Denis Diderot and Jean d’Alembert. First published between 1751 and 1777, the 32 volumes include 21 volumes of text with more than 70,000 articles on subjects ranging from asparagus to zodiac. The other 11 volumes contain beautifully engraved plates illustrating many of the articles. The Encyclopédie was the major achievement of the French Enlightenment whose aim was to "change the common way of thinking" (Diderot) through the expansion of knowledge and the development of critical modes of thought. The website makes the monumental encyclopaedia accessible to English-language readers. If you prefer a modern reprint, however, go to www.frommann-holzboog.de, and if you adore the original volumes, browse the metasearch on www.ilab.org
Brockhaus Encyclopaedia
The German „Britannica“ in 30 volumes with 300.000 items – the most important German encyclopaedia is online now. However, you can only browse it, if you have bought a password with the CD-Rom edition.
Wikipedia
The open online encyclopaedia: multi-language, multi-functional, millions of items and links. Beware: Although all articles are checked, there can be mistakes.
Zedlers “Universal-Lexicon”
The largest German encyclopedia of the 18th century: Johann Heinrich Zedlers Grosses und Vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste was originally published in 68 volumes with more then 288.000 items about the knowledge, the thinking and the curiosities of the pre-enlightenment. [+] More
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„There are fields of collecting in which you hear stories of someone who spent $5 at a flea market on an item that turned out to be worth $5 million. Book collecting is not one of those fields. a multimillion dollar Shakespeare First Folio up for auction gets a lot of attention. But for most collectors, books represent a stable, long-term investment. It’s a rarefied pursuit, one that can be financially rewarding if you have the necessary expertise, diligence, and patience. … Ask a dealer if books are a wise investment strategy and the short answer is no.” John Moore has found more elaborate answers in his article “Investing In Books: Safe Returns Between the Covers”. He has asked John Windle, Rebecca Rego Barry, Thomas Joyce and other dealers to determine the real value of a rare book. [+] More
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His paintings, sketches and lithographs about Africa and Australia have become book illustrations, the originals are kept in various museums and at the Royal Geographic Society. A river and a mountain in Australia are named after him, and a family of beetles has been called "Bolbotritus Bainesi". [+] More
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The Guardian reports: 70 books stolen from the Social Democratic party by the Nazi regime will officially be returned on August 31, including an 1883 English edition of The Communist Manifesto thought to come from the library of Friedrich Engels. The Social Democrats, Germany's oldest political party, was outlawed after the Nazis came to power in 1933. The return of the books is part of a larger project by the Berlin library to rehome Nazi "loot". In April, it had already given ten books and three journals back to the Jewish Community of Berlin. [+] More
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We all blame the internet for dramatic changes in the rare book trade. But have our problems really changed within the last decades? Reading Anthony Rota's lecture given in Tokyo in 1990 you could be inclined to say: No! He writes: "Booksellers, like the collectors and librarians they serve, are conservative creatures. By their very nature they are resistant to change; yet they are caught up in the changes that beset us today, and if they do not welcome them they must at least learn to adapt to them if they are to flourish. The antiquarian book trade has managed to cope with changes over a number of centuries now, and I do not doubt for a moment that it will continue to do so." [+] More
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A year ago the spectacular theft of the Codex Calixtinus was reported in the press. Almost 12 months later, this famous Codex, which is considered one of the most valuable books worldwide, has been found by the National Police in a garage in Santiago de Compostela. On Wednesday, 4th July, the police arrested the alleged thief, Manuel Fernández Castañeiras, who had been working as an electrician at the Cathedral for several years. It is said that he claimed 400,000 € compensation from the Cathedral for his unfair dismissal. [+] More
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