Search Results: Latin & Greek from George Robert Minkoff, Inc.

Johannes Dryander. Annulorum trium diversi generis instrumentorum.Illustrated with large woodcut of an armillary sphere on title-page and the divisional title to Regiomontanus; verso of title-page with a large woodcut of "Dryander's astronomical rings" suspended from a hand in the clouds; numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text; woodcut printer's device on pi4v and verso of final leaf; several large historiated woodcut initials. Text in Latin (a few passages in Greek). Slim 4to. Modern ¼-vellum (using old material) over marbled boards; printed paper title-label in gothic script pasted on front cover. Printed in Marburg by Eucharius Cervicornus, 1537. First Edition of this important assembly of texts on a popular Renaissance astronomical instrument: the astronomical ring-dial, a precursor of the equatorial. (Adams D940; BM STC German p 255; Houzeau and Lancaster 2459; Honeyman Collection 930; Zinner 1661)The ring-dial was intended as a navigational aid and could be adjusted for different… Read More

Joseph Von Paltz. Coelifodina Absconditos. Scripurae Thesauros Pandens . . . Bound with Supplementum coelifodinae . . . Two volumes bound in one. Text in Latin. Illustrated with 2 full-page woodcut title pages and 2 woodcut printer's device. Thick 4to. Bound in early 16th-century blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards (without the original clasps and metal bosses). Printed in Leipzig by Martin Landsberg, 1511 (Coelifodina) and 1510 (Supplementum coelifodinae). Third Edition of the Coelifodina (first printed in 1502). Second Edition of the Supplementum coelifodinae (first printed in 1504). Johann Von Paltz was a prominent German Augustinian theologian and one of Martin Luther's teachers at Erfurt. He played an important role in forming Luther's theological views. "Luther began by teaching a spirituality that contrasted sharply with Paltz's, but . . . as the indulgence controversy unfolded, Luther swerved onto a track much closer to Paltz, as he emphasized the power of absolution. . . Luther, formed… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. 4to. Bound in 20th-century 1/4-vellum over marbled boards. Strasbourg: Matthias Schürer, July 1510. Second Strasbourg edition of Erasmus heavily annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs. Printed in Roman and Greek types. This is the original version, containing 818 adages, which is considerably shorter than the later expanded versions published under the title Adagiorum chiliades. (Adams E-420; Bezzel, Erasmusdrucke, 50; Van der Haeghen, Bibliotheca Erasmiana, p.25-6; Bibl. Belgica II, 276: no. E.61; Muller, Strasbourg II, p. 179, no. 45.) The Adagia could only have been possible in the new world of European education, in which careful attention to a broader range of classical texts produced a much fuller picture of the literature of antiquity. Its impact has been long lasting. Such popular expressions such as one step at a time, between a rock and a hard place, break the ice, an iron in the fire, looking a gift horse in the mouth, and many other sayings can trace their… Read More

A JESUIT CORRECTS EULER'S THEORY OF LUNAR ATMOSPHERERuggero Giuseppe Boscovich. De Lunae Atmosphaera Dissertatio. Text in Latin. Illustrated with fold-out engraved plate comprising numerous geometric diagrams bound at the end; large woodcut device on title-page; woodcut baroque decorative head-piece and woodcut initial on page III. Errata on verso of last leaf. Slim 4to. Original Italian flexible carta rustica, later backed in parchment, untrimmed. Printed in Rome by Generoso Salomoni for Venanzio Monaldini, 1753. First Edition of this important pioneering workby Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, the celebrated Croatian Jesuit scientist, in which he examines and disproves the claims (by Leonhard Euler among others) that the moon has an atmosphere. (Riccardi I, 177-8 (42); Honeyman Collection 422)"Boscovich's first contribution to the pluralist debate was indirect and antipluralist in its implications; in 1753 he published De lunae atmospheraera, in which he analyzed whether or not the moon possesses an… Read More

The oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin.Pomponius Mela is considered an accurate sum of the European geographical knowledge before the discovery of the New World. De orbis situ libri tres dates from the first century A.D, and was first printed in 1471.Mela's descriptions of Africa were used by the Portuguese sailors navigating the waters of the Atlantic for the first time.Hardcover. Fine. With commentary by Ioachimi Vadiani. Illustrated with elaborate woodcut title page and woodcut initials. 4to. Bound in modern brown leather, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt letters, gilt decorations. Basel 1522. First Edition with the Vadianus Appendix. Mela's text (printed in Roman) is surrounded by extensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus. The volume ends with an appendix, Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata, consisting of Vadianus study of Melas work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it. Additionally the appendix, has a coda… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. Illustrated with woodcut printers mark on title and sectorial titles, 3 engraved head-pieces, 3 engraved initials, 1 full-page engraving of a theatre and another engraved illustration in text (all by A. Visentini, though only one signed); 3 series of woodcuts numbered 1-33, 1-3 and 1-21; plus 6 full-page woodcuts. Folio. Original limp boards. Padua, typis Seminarii, apud Joannem Manfré, 1739 (sectional title 1741). First Edition. Poleni was known especially as a prominent physicist. His scientific activities were paralleled by archaeological and architectural researches which made him so famous that the Pope called him to Rome to examine Saint Peters dome and to propose means to prevent its further movement. This work had been devised in 9 parts, but only the 3 gathered here were ever published. The first part is the first Vitruvian bibliography reedited with scientific criteria. The second part contains a letter of Morgagni on different passages of medical interest comprised in the… Read More

ILLUSTRATED WITH 66 POCHOIR WOODCUTSThe Fables of Aesop. Printed from the Veronese Edition of MCCCCLXXIX in Latin Verses and Italian Version by Accio Zucco, with the Woodcuts Newly Engraved and Coloured After a Copy in The British Museum. (With) The First Three Books of Caxton's Aesop containing the Fables Illustrated in the Verona Aesopus of MCCCCLXXIX.Epilogue by Giovanni Mardersteig. Illustrated with 66 full-page woodcuts by Anna Bramanti. Woodcuts are pochoir colored by Daniel Jacomet to recreate the illuminated miniature effect of the British Library copy of the Veronese Aesop of 1479 (upon which the present edition is based). The fleurons, first adopted in 1479, were engraved by Charles Malin. 8vo. Publisher's ¼-green morocco; decorated boards; top edges gilt; acetate dust wrappers; enclosed in morocco-tipped slipcase.Officina Bodoni, Verona, 1973. Limited to 160 numbered copies set in Centaur types, printed on Magnani mould made paper with goose watermark. 2 volumes. Volume I contains the… Read More

Hardcover. Very Good. Illustrated with 12 full-page hand-colored engravings illustrating 24 species of amaranthus. Folio. Modern ¼-leather-backed marbled boards. Turici (Zurich): impensis Ziegleri et fil, 1790. First Edition. The only edition of a specialist botanical work on the species of amaranthus by Carolo Willdenow, director of the Berlin Botanical Garden. The engravings are designed and engraved by R.J. Schellenberg. Willdenow is considered one of the founders of phytogeography, the study of the geographic distribution of plants. He was also a mentor of Alexander von Humboldt, one of the earliest and best known phytogeographers. Willdenow was interested in the adaptation of plants to climate, showing that similar climates had plants with common characteristics. His herbarium, containing more than 20,000 species, is preserved in the Botanical Garden in Berlin. Occasional foxing; title page browned; plates in very good condition.

Hardcover. Fine. Tractat[us] de meditatio[n]e cordis Joh[ann]is Gerson. Illustrated with 4 xylographic foliated initials, the first colored. 8vo. Bound in 19th century vellum. Impressum Venetijs arte [et] impensis Bernardini de benalijs, 1488. Early Edition. Hain, 9095; Goff, I-17; Bodleian Lib. 15th cent., T-105; BM 15th cent., V, p. 372 (IA.22318). The Imitatio Christi, or Imitation of Christ is often considered the greatest of all Christian manuals of devotion. In the late 15th century there was some dispute as to the authorship of this work. The present edition mistakenly ascribes it to Johannis Gerson, a French scholar, educator, reformer, poet and chancellor of the University of Paris. It has, however, been proven that this work really was written by the German monk Thomas à Kempis. Attributed variously but now definitely ascribed to Thomas à Kempis. (Goff). The first edition of Kempis work, published in 1473, did not include the Imitatio Christi, as it was believed then that Kempis was not… Read More

1542. 1st Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. With woodcut initials on black grounds; printers device on title page and final page. Printed in Italic and Roman type.12mo. Modern ½-red morocco; spine with 5 raised bands, gilt lettering. Frankfort, Christian Egenolf (1542). First Edition. Christoph Imlerus Hadamarius was a Lutheran theologian at Frankfurt during the early decades of the Reformation, whose works were consulted and used by Henri Estienne, amongst others, and whose commentaries found their way into several editions of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum printed after 1550 (including that printed at Padua in 1580). The present work consists of an influential and controversial series of exegeses and meditations upon the Epistles of John, Jude and James. It is particularly noteworthy that Imler does not use the Latin Vulgate translation for his commentaries, but uses a Protestant Latin translation instead. Presumably, the Vulgate was too Catholic a translation. Binding slightly faded at top… Read More

One of the finest works of illustration ever published, marking the transition from Rococo to the Neo-Classical Era of European art.Illustrated with 139 full-page plates by Boucher, Eisen, Gravelot, Monnet, Moreau, and others. Plus engraved title, 3 pages of dedications, 4 fleurons on title pages, 30 engraved vignettes and 1 full-page cul-de-lampe by Choffard and Monnet closing Volume 4. Engraved by Le Mire and Basan. Large 4to. Full 18th century French marbled calf; spine with 5 raised bands; red and green morocco labels; gilt spines, gilt borders and edges; original hand-marbled endpapers. A Paris, Chez Leclerc. 1767 to 1771. 4 volumes. Ovid's Metamorphoses are of course, are some of the most famous stories to survive from antiquity; they tell, essentially, a history of the world in dactylic hexameter, the meter of the epics. Ovid's stories are as foundational to Western literature as any other book written; they include the story of Io and Jupiter, the stories of Cadmus, Pyramus and Thisbe (of… Read More

The original Greek text of Demosthenes with the Greek scholia of Ulpinus, and the commentary of Erasmus and Budaeus bound-in. 18th century ½-calf-backed marbled boards, spine rebacked. Folio. Johannes Herwagen, Basel 1532. Second Edition of Demosthenes in the original Greek, and First Edition of the commentary of Erasmus and Budaeus. Marbled papers on front cover torn in 3 spots; small puncture hole on back cover; 2 instances of worming in the upper outer corners, extending for 3 or 4 gatherings, but not affecting the text; o/w very good to excellent condition internally, with remarkably wide margins. An exceptionally beautiful book, produced by one of the great scholar-printers of the Renaissance.

8vo. 19th- century ½-vellum. Venice: (Damianus de Mediolano, de Gorgonzola) 16 Nov. 1493. (ISTC No.: ig00602500; H 8207; GW 11804). Guido de Monte Rochen's Manipulus curatorum is considered the most important of the medieval pastoral manuals. (It was not made obsolete until the Council of Trent in 1566.) It is especially important as a key example of the intersection of religious doctrine and practice. The author attempts to make centuries of theology and canon law comprehensible for the priest of little learning and, in turn, for his parishioners. No other work did this as successfully. Binding slightly bent; title page a bit dusty; a few leaves misnumbered in manuscript; o/w a fine copy with large margins of this rare incunable. No known copies in the United States.

Translated by Wilhelm Xylander; Edited by Thomas Munckerus. Illustrated with additional engraved title page by C. Decker; woodcut initials. 12mo. Greek and Latin texts on facing pages. Contemporary semi-limp vellum; gilt borders with acorn corner tools and Upsilon centerpiece to each board; title inked on spine. Amstelodami (Amsterdam): apud Janssonio-Waesbergios 1676. (Willems 1894; Hoffmann I 193; Spoelder 527 (Delft I)). Known as The Metamorphoses, Liberalis' only surviving work is a collection of 41 brief tales of mythical transformation. Written in conversational prose rather than the usual verse, its modern translator Francis Celoria notes that its koine Greek is entirely acceptable while also being "grimly simple." Wilhelm Xylander first printed the text in 1568; since then some leaves of the single surviving manuscript (late 9th century) have disappeared, making the editio princeps a necessary textual authority. The Upsilon character in the center of each board could depict a Y, U, or V… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. Illustrated with 108 copper engraved plates, historiated initials and figurative tail pieces. 4to. Contemporary half-vellum-backed marbled paper-covered boards, gilt letters on spine; title in red and black with engraved vignette, Florence, Typ. Bernardi Paperini 1729. First Edition of this major work by the father of modern mycology. Micheli was one of the most prominent botanists of his age. Linnaeus named the genus Michelia, a Southeast Asian relative of the magnolia, in his honour. He was appointed botanist to Cosimo III de Medici in 1706, and served as professor of botany in Pisa and curator of the Orto Botanico di Firenze. He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams and named several important genera of microfungi. The present work marked a major advance in our knowledge of fungi. Micheli gives descriptions of 1900 plants, of which about 1400 were described for the first time. Among these were 900 fungi and lichens, accompanied by 73 plates. He… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. Folio. Bound in original boards. Parma 1791. First Edition. One of 25 copies on papier verge of an edition of 128. Paper worn on spine; interior clean and bright. A Fine Copy. Scarce.

Title printed within an elaborate woodcut historiated border; 6 woodcuts in text at the opening of each Satire; plus woodcut white-on-black decorated and historiated initials of various sizes, including a 17-line initial 'S' on A4v. Text in roman letter, surrounded by commentary printed in smaller roman and occasional Greek type. Text in Latin (commentaries with many passages in Greek). Folio. Bound in modern period-style, blind-tooled, ¼-leather over wooden boards; printed paper label in gothic script on cover. Printed in Venice by Bernardino Viani, 15 December 1520. (Adams P-736; Sander 5569; Panzer VIII 461, 127; Schweiger II, p.708).Based on the 1516 Venice edition by Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis. The text of Persius' Satires is surrounded with commentaries by the noted Renaissance humanists Johannes Baptista Plautius, Johannes Britannicus, and Bartholomaeus Fontius, as well as those ascribed (perhaps spuriously) to Persius' friend, the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus. The woodcuts… Read More

Small 8vo. Bound in contemporary vellum. Printed by Jean Antoine Huguetan, Lyons 1638. (Colophon at end dated 1627; printing privilege dated 1626.) Second Edition of this comprehensive treatise on geomancy.Illustrated with numerous diagrams, schematic woodcuts and tables in text, as well as 10 plates, 1 of which is an engraved single-page plate, while the other 9 are fold-out woodcut diagrams or letterpress tables, some bound to face each other; plus large engraved printer's device with an armillary sphere on title-page; a few decorative woodcut head-pieces and initials.The Opus Geomantiae Completum "is divided into three parts devoted respectively to the theory, practice and questions taken from previous authors. The theory is largely astrological. Instead of jotting down four rows of dots at random, a wheel with sixteen projections is spun or whirled in order to obtain one of the sixteen geomantic figures. Fludd is cited more than once, also Arabic authors like Geber and Aomar, medieval Latins like… Read More

FIRST EDITION OF PEUCER'S TREATISE ON INTERNAL MEDICINE16mo. Bound in full mid-17th century vellum. Francofortti, Typis Nicolai Hoffmanni, Sumptibus Ioannis Bernerri, 1614. First Edition. Also included is Peucer's treatise on fever, "Tractatus de Febriburus" together with Gabriele Fontano's "Tetras Gravissimorum Capitis Affectuum" ["Four Very Grave Maladies Affecting the Head"], Printed at Lyons by Barbier in 1647. Caspar Peucer was a German reformer, physician, and scholar. He wrote several important treatises, of which the present is his leading medical work and one of the finer considerations of internal diseases published during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Peucer was a follower of Paracelsus, son-in-law of Melanchthon, acquaintance of Copernicus and an important correspondent of Brahe. With the dedication inscription of Giesebrecht to A.F. Stoius on the front endpaper, dated 1781.Binding slightly worn at edges; 2-inch crack at heel of spine on front hinge; some minor toning to pages;… Read More

Hardcover. Fine. George Lokert (Editor). Text in Latin. Title-page printed within an architectural historiated border with columns, flowerpots, dolphins, grotesques etc., and with Badius woodcut device depicting a printing press. Illustrated with woodcut diagrams in text; numerous woodcut and metalcut white-on-black decorative and historiated initials of various sizes (some as large as 14-line). Folio. 19th-century full vellum over thick boards, flat spine with gilt-lettered red morocco label. All edges rouged; silk bookmark attached. Paris, printed by Badius Ascensius for Conrard Resch, 1516. First Edition of this important compilation of commentaries on Aristotles writings on the natural sciences by 3 leading medieval scholars working at the University of Paris. Jean Buridans commentary on De anima, Themo Judaeis commentary on Meteorologica and George Lokerts Tractatus proportionum are printed here for the first time (Editio Princeps). Jean Buridan was an eminent French Aristotelian philosopher,… Read More