Florence: Demetrius Damilas [in the shop of the Printer of Vergilius (C 6061)] for Bernardo and Nero De' Nerli and Giovanni Acciaiuoli, 9 December... More

Florence: Demetrius Damilas [in the shop of the Printer of Vergilius (C 6061)] for Bernardo and Nero De' Nerli and Giovanni Acciaiuoli, 9 December 1488 [not before 13 January , 1488/89]. 2 volumes, Median folio (332 ?238 mm). Lately rebound to style using 18th-century brown morocco, spine decorated in blind with urn and lyre devices etc in compartments between five raised bands, sides panelled in blind with matching tools and floral devices within a latticework central panel, based on a Florentine binding executed in 1504 (illustrated in Tammaro de Marinis, La Legatura Artistica, Florence 1960). 439 leaves (of 440, lacking final blank), 39 lines, Greek letter, 2- and 10-line initial spaces. Ex-libris University of Lyon, with stamp Acad. Lugd. and release stamp dated 1843 on the first leaf; later in the libraries of Constantine Radoulesco and H. Bradley Martin (Sotheby's New York, 14 June 1990, lot 3355). Unrubricated, occasional marginalia in an attractive contemporary cursive hand; a good clean copy. Editio princeps of the writings attributed to Homer, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, two of the earliest, most important and influential works of European literature. "The Iliad and the Odyssey are the first perfect poetry of the western world. They spring fully grown, their predecessors lost, and the magic has persisted ever since. The legends of the siege of Troy and the return of Odysseus are the common heritage of all … The form, the action and the words have had incalculable influence on the form, action and words of poetry ever since; the composition of the Aeneid, the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, and many others, has been determined by the Iliad and the Odyssey. Their popularity never diminishes" (PMM). The editor Demetrius Chalcondylas was professor of Greek at the Florentine Studio from 1475 until 1491. The type is that of Demetrius Damilas, a scribe who had previously been active in the printing of Greek books in Milan since 1476. It was based on the handwriting of Michael Apostolis, which was simpler and more distinct than Damilas's own elegant but elaborate hand. This monumental printing is the first large-scale printing in Greek, and also probably the first Greek book printed in Florence. (The rare Erotemata by Emanuel Chrysoloras, which survives in only two copies, was printed in Florence either in 1475 or c. 1488-94.) The text of Homer was not printed again in Greek until Aldus's octavo edition of 1504, which was based directly on Chalcondylas's text. The Batrachomyomachia ("Battle of the Frogs and Mice"), a pseudo-Homeric text, which is also included here with the Iliad, Odyssey and Homeric Hymns, had been earlier printed in an unsigned Greek-Latin edition printed perhaps at Brescia or Ferrara, which is known only from the unique copy in the John Rylands University Library, Manchester. Despite the lengthy and circumstantial colophon, bibliographers have had trouble in agreeing on the correct imprint and date. Robert Proctor (The Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth Century, 1900, p. 66 sqq.) argued that the edition was actually printed in the shop of Bartolommeo di Libri, whose type was used to print the dedication to Piero de' Medici on the first page. BMC assigned the edition rather to the Nerli brothers, but Roberto Ridolfi (La stampa a Firenze nel secolo XV, 1958, p. 95 sqq.) has pointed out that the Nerli were well-born and wealthy Florentines whose role would have been a purely financial one. He has instead assigned the Homer to the anonymous Florentine shop, the Printer of Virgil (Copinger 6061, Goff V183), which flourished from 1488 to 1490 or so. Ridolfi supposes that only the first, dedication page was printed in di Libri's shop, more than a month after the completion of the edition proper, this page hitherto having been planned as a blank. Less

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Philadelphia. 1759.. Engraved map on six sheets, joined as three. Sheet size: 3 sheets, each approximately 31 x 21 1/2 inches. Excellent condition,... More

Philadelphia. 1759.. Engraved map on six sheets, joined as three. Sheet size: 3 sheets, each approximately 31 x 21 1/2 inches. Excellent condition, with three short repaired tears, very minor age toning at the sheet edges, overall in remarkable unsophisticated condition. Provenance: Laird U. Park (Sotheby's New York, Nov. 29, 2000, lot 322). The first map of Pennsylvania to be published in America. Scull (1687-1761) was born in Philadelphia and is thought to have been apprenticed at a young age to William Penn's surveyor, Thomas Holme. In 1719 he became deputy surveyor of Philadelphia County, eventually ascending to the surveyor generalship of Pennsylvania in 1748. An original member of Benjamin Franklins Junto, Scull was intimately involved with Indian relations of the period, having travelled amongst the tribes surveying the western counties. Siding with the Proprietors in his recollection of the Walking Purchase, at which he was present, no doubt held him in good standing with the Penn family. It is thought that this, in part, led to the publication of this impressive map. Dedicated to the Proprietors, it is among the largest and finest maps produced in America to that date. The map depicts Philadelphia, Bucks, Northampton, Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, and York Counties, and is based on Sculls own surveys as well as the reports of Major Joseph Shippen, Colonel John Armstrong, John Watson, Benjamin Lightfoot, and others. In addition, some information was gleaned from printed sources, including Fry-Jefferson's important map, evidenced by a printed footnote on the map concerning the location of Fort Cumberland and the Maryland- Pennsylvania border. Elevation is accurately depicted, much in the style of Fry-Jefferson, by neat hachure marks. The eastern counties include a wealth of detail, such as churches, meeting houses, inns, iron forges, mills, and the manors of significant residents; roads, Indian paths, Indian towns, and forts are clearly shown throughout. Although generally quite accurate, it is curious that Scull included Fort Granville on his map, which had been destroyed by the French and Delaware Indians in 1756. Nevertheless, the importance and accuracy of this large-scale map is underscored by the fact that a copy of it was among the maps hung by the Board of War at Philadelphia in August 1776, twenty years after the map's publication (as listed by John Adams in his letter to his wife dated Aug. 13, 1776). The map was engraved by James Turner (d. 1759), a Philadelphia silversmith and prot? of Benjamin Franklin. Turner had previously worked on map engraving during the production of James Parker's 1747 maps of New Jersey, a project for which he had been recommended by Franklin. Little is known about the printer, John Davis. Although he had no shop, he appears to have specialized in large copperplate engravings of maps, as he is the printer identified in the imprint of the 1756 Philadelphia first edition of Joshua Fisher's important chart of Delaware Bay. That map and the present one are his only known works. Scull's 1759 map of Pennsylvania is very rare, with less than a dozen known institutional copies. Only a few have appeared at auction in the last half century, most notably in the sales of the collections of Thomas W. Streeter, Howard E. Welsh, and Laird U. Park (this copy). EBERSTADT 167:430 (quoting Wroth). EVANS 8489. Garrison, "Cartography of Pennsylvania before 1800" in PMHB, Vol. 59, no. 3. PHILLIPS, p.673. RISTOW, pp.52-53. STREETER SALE 965. WHEAT & BRUN 422. Less

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London: Printed by the Author, 1671.. Engraved frontispiece, thirty-seve plates (six portraits, thirty-one views and plans [two of these folding,... More

London: Printed by the Author, 1671.. Engraved frontispiece, thirty-seve plates (six portraits, thirty-one views and plans [two of these folding, twenty-nine double- page]), nineteen maps (two folding, seventeen double-page), sixty-six engraved illustrations. Ruled in red throughout, title printed in red and black. Folio. Contemporary English paneled calf gilt, covers with paneling tooled with fillets and roll tools, the inner panels with lozenge-shaped stylized floral-spray tools, expertly repaired, the spine in seven compartments with raised bands, green morocco lettering-pieces in the second and third compartments lettered in gilt, edges stained in gilt. Portrait facing p.60 expertly remargined, some small neat repairs to margins and folds. Very good. In a tan morocco-backed cloth box, lettered in gilt on spine. A very fine large copy of Ogilby's first edition of this important work, here ruled in red for presentation and including the rare Lords Proprietors map of Carolina. The binding, the size and the rubrication of this copy of Ogilby's most important publication all suggest that this copy was prepared for presentation. The ruling in red of a book (an essential part of manuscript production in the middle ages) had come to be a costly extra process by the second half of the 17th century, and one that was reserved for copies of books that were intended for presentation. The McGill University copy of Francis Willughby's ORNITHOLOGY (published in 1678) was edited by John Ray and presented by him to Samuel Pepys (probably when he was President of the Royal Society) - it is ruled in red. From the spine labels on the present volume which are lettered "Ogilby's / Atlas / Vol.3. / America" it is clear that this copy formed part of a collection of works published by Ogilby, that were placed under the general title of "Ogilby's Atlas" by the 18th-century owner and would probably have included his volumes on Africa, Asia, China and Japan. The present copy is also unusual in that it contains the so-called Lords Proprietors map "A New Discription [sic] of Carolina By Order of the Lords Proprietors" - a map that was commissioned by Ogilby for this work, but which was not included in the earlier issues of the book as it was apparently not available until, at the earliest, 1672 and possibly as late as 1675. The present copy is the second issue of the first edition and is complete. Our definition of the first three issues of the first edition is as follows: 1) dated 1671, with both the "Arx Carolina" plate and the "Virginia pars australis..." map, without the "Carolina" map, possibly without the "Barbados" map, and with the plate list including the "Arx…" and "Virginia...," but not the "Carolina" or "Barbados." 2) dated 1671, with the "Carolina..." map replacing both the "Arx..." plate and the "Virginia..." map. The "Barbados" map is included, but the plate list still includes the "Arx…" and "Virginia...," but not the "Carolina" or "Barbados." 3) dated 1671, with the "Carolina..." map replacing both the "Arx..." plate and the "Virginia..." map. The "Barbados" map is include, and the plate list has been removed and substituted by a reset cancel that no longer includes either the "Arx…" or the "Virginia...," but probably still does not include the "Carolina" or "Barbados." These definitions are somewhat at variance with Cumming GEOGRAPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS, Baer MARYLAND and EUROPEAN AMERICANA - but they all contradict each other to some degree as well, and none of them agree with either Sabin or Borba de Moraes. The work is an English translation of Arnold Montanus' DE NIEUWE EN ONBEKENDE WEERELD, but with a number of additions concerning New England, New France, Maryland and Virginia. The work is divided into three books or sections and an appendix: the first gives an overall survey of the most important voyages and expeditions to the Americas; the second book offers a description of Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Bermuda, and North America; the third deals with South America and the appendix includes a miscellany of information including notes on the "Unknown South-Land," the "Arctick Region," and the search for the northwest passage. ARENTS 315A. BAER MARYLAND 70A-C (ref). BORBA DE MORAES, p.626 (ref). CHURCH 613. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 671/204-207 (ref). JCB III:227-228. SABIN 50089. STOKES VI, p.262 (ref). K.S. van Eerde, JOHN OGILBY AND THE TATE OF HIS TIMES, p.107. WING O-165. Carolina map: CUMMING SOUTHEAST IN EARLY MAPS 70. DEGREES OF LATITUDE 13. Less

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