Antiquariaat FORUM BV na 50th California International Antiquarian Book Fair (February 10-12)

California International Antiquarian Book Fair February 2017

Laurens Hesselink da Forum Rare Books vai estar presente na 50th California International AntiquarianBook Fair que decorrerá de 10 a 12 de Fevereiro no Oakland Marriott City Center | 1001 Broadway | Oakland, California 70173.

At the 50th California International Antiquarian Book Fair, being held Feb. 10-12 in Oakland, book sellers will showcase antique volumes, including Renaissance-era bibles; rare first editions and manuscripts; author-autographed volumes; photos from the Old West; vintage campaign and protest posters; and more. (Photo © www.cabookfair.com)

Para este evento Forum Rare Books preparou um Catálogo especial onde são privilegiados os livros de viagem e expedições científicas.

É muito difícil fazer uma escolha entre obras tão boas, de elevada raridade e em condições de conservação muito boa, pelo que deixo uma “amostra” um pouco aleatória, pois para mais não tenho atrevimento…

Catálogo

Foi para mim uma surpresa agradável constatar que este Catálogo abre com uma obra portuguesa, o que confirma que as nossas obras também têm procura e estão bem cotadas no mercado internacional e, mais adiante, iremos encontrar ainda outra!

Trata-se de:

Jesuit missions in Brazil, Asia, and Mozambique

1. ABREU, Sebastiao d’ – Vida, e virtudes do Admiravel Padre Joam Cardim da Companhia de Jesu Portuguez natural de Vianna de Alentejo. Évora, University Press, 1659. 4º. With engraved frontispiece portrait of the Jesuit João Cardim. Contemporary goatskin parchment.

$ 12 500

First edition of a biography of the Portuguese Jesuit João Cardim, written by Sebastien d’Abreu (1594–1674), also paying attention to his two uncles who were missionaries in the Far East and Brazil. His uncle Antonio Francesco Cardim (1596–1659), travelled for a few years as a missionary in China, Japan and other areas in the Far East. He was the Jesuit superior in Macau when the shogun of Japan forbade all voyages from Macau to Japan. “Cardim ... sent to Lisbon a report that was printed in 1643 of the execution at Nagasaki in 1640 of four Portuguese emissaries sent to Japan from Macau. Translations of this account quickly appeared in French, Italian and Dutch. ... In 1645 he published at Rome his Relatione of Japan in which he also deals at length with the missions in Macao, Tongking, Cochin-China, Hainan, Cambodia, and Siam, placed within the Jesuit Province of Japan where he had worked from 1623–1638” (Lach & Van Kley). The other uncle, Fernão Cardim (d. 1625), was an influential Jesuit in Brazil, one of the first who went to the mission posts there. He became director of a college in Rio de Janeiro and was made “provincial” of the local area. Lacking final endpaper and the bookblock partly detached from the binding. Some of the red paint from the sprinkled edges is found in the margins of the title-page and the engraved portrait and a few leaves are slightly browned. Otherwise still in very good condition.

     De Backer & Sommervogel I, col. 26; cf. Howgego, to 1800, C39; Lach & Van Kley, p. 348, 378.

”For the first time in English letters, travel was viewed as a science” (Parker)

5. BOURNE, William – A booke called the treasure for traveilers, . . .London, [T. Dawson for] T. Woodcock, 1578. 5 parts in 1 volume. 4º. With full-page woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee, full-page woodcut diagrammatic surveying map, 36 woodcuts in the text and woodcut factotums. Late 18th-century half calf (neatly rebacked).

 $ 36 000

First edition of the first book in English on practical matters of geography and navigation, intended for pilots, ship’s captains, sailors, soldiers, carpenters, surveyors and traders. Grounded in Bourne’s own experience and addressed to those unschooled in mathematics, it boasts a string of firsts. It contains the first popular explanation in English of surveying by triangulation and the first illustration of this method applied to an actual location (at a scale of 1:52,800). It is the first English book to describe the volumes, capacities, and proportions of ships’ hulls-for loading and storing commercial merchandise, for getting ships over bars or shoals and for raising sunken vessels for salvage. It is the first book to set out the sizes and weights of cordage and give rules for their computation. And it offers the first explanation of ocean currents in English, including the North and South Atlantic Drift, on which the English relied in their subsequent aggressive expansion to the east and west. He also discusses the formation and peopling of the Americas.

The treasure also aided spies, brigands, explorers and gentleman tourists. The Preface “advised persons going into strange countries to observe the state of civilization of the region, the nature of the fortifications, access to the sea, the government, laws, buildings, natural enemies and friends among neighbouring states, the major items in trade, commodities produced, customs and tolls, manner of waging war, etc.” (Parker). It represents a peculiarly “English” tradition, independent of Continental models, in which the traveller especially values the common wealth.

The Macclesfield copy, with his 1860 armorial North Library bookplate. Title-page soiled, marginal worm-holes in first four and last six leaves, affecting text only in the errata (which is very slightly shaved) and 1 shoulder note. Otherwise in very good condition.

     Adams & Waters, English maritime books 252; ESTC S104686; Johnson, Astronomical thought in Renaissance England 176 & 310; Kelso, Doctrine of the English gentleman in the 16th century 137; Luborsky & Ingram 3432; Parker, Books to build an empire 92–93 & 248; Sitwell, Four centuries of special geography 117.

Calvin’s commentary on the Pauline Epistles,

one of his few works translated into Dutch before 1572

7. CALVIN, Jean – Uutlegghinghe ... op alle de Sendbrieven Pauli des Apostels: ende oock op den Sendbrief tot den Hebreen. Met een schoon register. Emden, Gillis van der Erve and Willem Gailliart, 1566. 2º. With Van der Erve’s woodcut device on title-page and several woodcut decorated initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf over bevelled wooden boards, each board in a panel design with 4 different rolls, engraved brass catchplates (remains of straps but clasps lost), later(?) brass decorated corner and centre pieces, each with a boss, rebacked. The rolls show (from outside to inside) decorative crests and foliage, 4 half-length portraits with mottos, and 4 nude putti, 1 with a saint’s halo.

$ 9 000

First edition of the first Dutch translation of Calvin’s commentaries on the Epistles of Saint Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews. By 1539 Calvin had planned to write commentaries on all the Pauline Epistles, and he began with the book of Romans (first published in 1540). In 1551 all parts were finished and published together with the Epistle to the Hebrews as In omnes D. Pauli epistolas, atque etia in epistola ad Hebraeos commentaria luculentissima.

It was translated into Dutch by Johannes Dyrkinus (ca. 1530–before 1592) and Johannes Florianus (1522–1585) and contains a new preface by Calvin addressed to Simon Grynaeus as well as a dedication to Unico Manninga. “… although Calvin was read and certainly influential in the Netherlands from an early date, surprisingly few of his works were translated into Dutch before 1572” (Pettegree, p. 230). It was printed and published in Emden by Gillis van der Erve and Willem Gailliart. “Emden printing represented possibly the most important, certainly the community’s most individual contribution to the shaping of Dutch Protestantism in this period” (Pettegree, p. 87).

Some insignificant water stains; rebacked; clasps missing. Although there are some small holes and (especially on the back board) small gouges and cuts in the leather covering the boards, the tooling remains extremely crisp and clear. Good copy of Calvin’s commentaries on the Epistles of Saint Paul.

     Erichson, p. 31; Pettegree, Emden 161; STCN (7 copies); Typ. Batava 935; USTC 401254; cf. NNBW IV, cols. 547–550 & 604–605; not in Adams.

Most important 19th-century scientific expedition to South America,

with nearly 500 plates, mostly hand-coloured

9. CASTELNAU, Francis de (botanical volumes by Hugh Algernon WEDDELL) – Expédition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud, de Rio de Janeiro a Lima, et de Lima au Para; exécutée par ordre du gouvernement Français pendant les années 1843 a 1847. Paris, P. Bertrand, 1850–1859. 7 parts in 15 volumes. 8º (6 vols.), 4º (7 vols.), folio (2 vols.). With 493 lithographed and tinted lithographed plates and maps, including 401 partly or completely hand-coloured. Later rust-red half morocco.

$ 145 000

First edition, beautifully illustrated, of the reports of the most important scientific expedition to South America in the 19th century, led by the French naturalist Francis de Castelnau (1810–1880). The scientific results of this expedition are of considerable importance. Besides the zoological, botanical, mineralogical and ethnographical collections he brought to Europe, Castelnau provided a wealth of information with the astronomical, barometrical, hydrographical and hydraulic observations and determinations he made. The beautifully coloured plates make it a desired work for bibliophiles as well.

During their travels Castelnau and his men gathered an enormous amount of information through meteorological, magnetic, botanical and zoological observations. They lost a great deal of their work when Indians killed one of the expedition members and destroyed most of his records of the astronomical and barometrical observations. Fortunately his minutes were saved and with considerable effort the reports of the expedition were completed. The expedition ended when Castelnau returned to France in 1848.

Fine, complete set. The binding with occasional small chips or minor abrasions, but still very good.

     Borba de Moraes, pp. 167–168; Howgego, 1800–1850, C14; Nissen, ZBI 88–89; Sabin 11411.

Travel account with magnificent series of views;

a superb set in the most original condition possible

12. CHORIS, Louis – Vues et paysages des régions équinoxiales, recueillis dans un voyage autour du monde, par Louis Choris, avec une introduction et un text explicatif. Paris, Paul Renouard, 1826. 6 parts. 2º. With 24 lithographed plates. Each part in original mauve printed wrappers, preserved in a green morocco box.

$ 43 000

A superb set in the most original condition possible of this glorious voyage book, with magnificent series of views, including Brazil, Chile, Hawaii and other Pacific Islands, Kamchatka, the Marianas, Manila, the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena.

Choris had joined Otto von Kotzebue’s famous voyage around the world as its official painter, on the ship Le Rourik, which sailed in 1815. It was the first Russian expedition with a purely scientific purpose. Choris made many drawings, and after his return in 1819 he settled in Paris where he was greatly encouraged to publish his work, since many of the drawings were portraits of people never seen before. In 1822 he published these drawings in his well-known Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, edited by Georges Cuvier. But when he later found another 24 interesting drawings, he decided to publish them in the present work, intended as a kind of appendix to the Voyage pittoresque.

In fine condition.

     Borba de Moraes, pp. 180–81; Forbes 632; Hawaii One Hundred, 38; Lada-Mocarski 90; not in Hill.

3 Princes of Orange, with much information on the Dutch in Brazil

and illustrated with 80 double-page plates beautifully hand-coloured

15. COMMELIN, Isaac – Fredrick Hendrick van Nassauw Prince va[n] Orangien zyn leven en bedryf. Amsterdam, Jodocus Janssonius, 1651 (colophon: printed by Paulus Matthijsz., 1651). With an engraved title-page, a full-page engraved portrait of Frederik Hendrik, and 34 double-page (or in 2 cases larger folding) engraved plates. All beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand and most highlighted with gold.

With: (2) [ORLERS, Jan Jansz., and Isaac COMMELIN] – Wilhelm en Maurits van Nassau, Princen van Orangien, haer leven en bedrijf, of ‘t begin en voortgang der Nederlandsche oorlogen. Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius, 1651. With an engraved title-page, full-page engraved portraits of William and of Maurits, Maurits’s full-page engraved coat of arms, and 46 double-page (or in 2 cases larger folding) engraved plates, mostly maps, plans and bird’s-eye views of cities, fortifications and battles. All beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand and most highlighted with gold. 2 complementary works, each with 2 parts in 1 volume. 2º (32 × 21.5 cm). Uniform contemporary or near contemporary gold- and blind-tooled vellum. Ties lacking.

$ 135 000

First editions of two complementary works, in matching format, similar layout and beautifully and extensively illustrated, devoted to the lives, history and military careers of the three most important stadtholders and Princes of Orange to the time of publication, including a great deal of information on the Dutch conquests, trade and commerce in the Americas in general and Brazil in particular. In the present copy the engraved title-pages, portraits, coat of arms and illustrations are all beautifully coloured by a contemporary hand, most of them highlighted in gold. Truusje Goedings, expert in 17th-century Dutch colourists, has identified the colouring as the work of Frans Koerten (1603–1668), the most acclaimed Dutch colourist of the middle of the 17th century.

Something must have gone wrong with the printing or colouring of Maurits’s portrait, for one can see that the portrait was printed on the leaf, but another print from the same plate has been pasted over it as a cancel.With a small tear in the foot of one map and water stains at the foot of the leaves in both works, but otherwise in very good condition. The bindings have cracks in the joints. Beautifully coloured copies of two magnificently illustrated works on the Princes of Orange and Dutch activities in Brazil and elsewhere.

     Ad 1: Alden & Landis 651/53; Borba de Moraes, p. 19; ad 2: Alden & Landis 651/110; Borba de Moraes, pp. 634–635.

“A conspectus and summation

of the finest research of its age”

with about 2800 hand-coloured

botanical woodcuts

30. GERARD, John, Thomas JOHNSON [and Rembert DODOENS]. The herball or generall historie of plantes. ... very much enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson ... London, Adam Islip, Joyce Norton, Richard Whitakers, “1636” (1633 edition with the 1636 title-page). 2º. With an integral engraved title-page by John Payne and about 2800 woodcut botanical illustrations, all coloured by an early hand. Calf (ca. 1700?), gold-tooled spine; rebacked, with the original backstrip laid down and later endleaves.

 $ 48 500

Rare coloured copy of the second and best edition (the first with the extensive corrections and additions by Thomas Johnson) of the greatest English herbal of its time and here illustrated with about 2800 botanical woodcuts showing flowers, trees (including fruit and nut trees), berries, gourds, root vegetables, herbs and spices, mushrooms, medicinal plants and more. Plants shown include potatoes, tobacco, cannabis, tulips, maize and others from various exotic lands, many from the Americas. The present 1633 edition is “a conspectus and summation of the finest research of its age. ... a lasting monument of Renaissance botany.” (introduction to the 1975 facsimile) “in every respect immeasurably superior to its predecessor” (Blunt). The present copy appears to be entirely or almost entirely the 1633 edition, except that it has the 1636 title-page. Copies mixing the 1633 and 1636 editions are probably common but only occasionally noticed.

With a few manuscript notes and a few dried and pressed plant specimens between the leaves. Lacking the initial and final integral blanks. With the first few and last few quires stained (mostly in the gutter margin), with some old repairs and the last few leaves of the index tattered; elsewhere an occasional stain, small hole or marginal tear. But most of the leaves remain in good condition. The binding scuffed and flaked, but now structurally sound. Rare coloured copy of the greatest early monument of British botany, with about 2800 hand-coloured botanical woodcuts.

     Alden & Landis 633/39; Blunt, pp. 164–165; Hunt 223; Johnston 185; Nissen, BBI 698.

Portuguese wars against the Ottoman and Gujarat Muslims

for control of the Indian spice trade

31. GOES, Damião de – De bello Cambaico ultimo commentarii tres. Louvain, Servatius Sassenus de Dienst, January 1549. Small 4º (19.5 × 13.5 cm). With an emblematic woodcut printer’s device on title-page, repeated on the last page. Modern sheepskin parchment over flexible boards.

$ 48 500

Rare first edition of three Latin commentaries on the Portuguese wars in Gujarat, India, by the great Portuguese humanist Damião de Goes (1502–1574). The title refers to the kingdom of Khambhat around the Gulf of Khambhat in southern Gujarat. The Portuguese had had a strong presence at Diu on the western side of the Gulf of Khambhat since defeating the Sultan of Gujarat and the Mamluks in 1509, even though the Ottoman Empire and the Venetians supported the anti-Portuguese forces. Portugal quickly became the Ottoman Empire’s leading rival for control of the region’s spice trade. In 1535 the Muslim Sultan of Gujarat, now under attack from the Mughals, made an alliance with the Portuguese and allowed them to build a fortress at Diu, which became a keystone for the defence of the Portuguese colonies and the security of their spice trade on the Malabar coast. Although relations quickly soured, the Sultan of Gujarat was also wary of the growing Ottoman power. When an enormous Ottoman fleet besieged the Portuguese fortress at Diu in 1538 the Sultan of Gujarat provided less than enthusiastic support and the Portuguese were able to hold out through the monsoon season until a large Portuguese relief fleet arrived and forced the Ottomans to withdraw. In April 1546 the Gujarats began a second siege of Diu. The Portuguese sent reinforcements from Goa several times but they proved insufficient until João de Castro, Governor of Goa, whose son had died in the hostilities, came himself with a large fleet and 3000 men in November (once again after the monsoons ended), broke the siege and killed hundreds or thousands of Muslims, including civilians. This solidified Portuguese colonial rule in the region and set the stage for the later British colonization.

With a one word corrected in the margin in a contemporary hand. Some faint browning (only more pronounced one the last leaf), some occasional spots, a few minor smudges and a minimal waterstain in the lower margins, nonetheless still a very good copy. An important source for Portuguese relations with the Muslim world and the Portuguese spice trade in India.

     Belg.Typ. 1288; USTC 404904; for the background events: K.M. Mathew, History of the Portuguese navigation in India: 1497–1600, pp. 213–221.

First Dutch translation of a popular description

of sea plants and corals, with 52 hand-coloured plates

42. MARSIGLI, Luigi Ferdinando – Natuurkundige beschryving der zeën. The Hague, De Compagnie, 1786. 2º. With an engraved frontispiece by Matthijs Pool, 12 mostly folding maps, profiles of coast-lines and tables, and 40 full-page engraved plates with numerous illustrations of sea plants and corals, all beautifully coloured by hand. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spine.

 $ 8 000

First edition of the Dutch translation, beautifully illustrated and hand-coloured, of a popular description of plants and corals of the sea by Luigi Ferdinando Conte de Marsigli (1658–1730), a celebrated Italian geographer and natural scientist. First published at Bologna in 1700, it was the first work to describe what the author himself called “coral-flowers”. He minutely and very correctly described and designed them, but he drew the wrong conclusions, seeing them as plants in stead of plant-animals. But even when this was corrected by later scientists like Jussieu and Ellis, Marsigli’s book continued to be published for its beautiful plates, and its accurate descriptions. In the present edition the publisher asks his readers just to substitute the word plant for animal.

In very good condition, with virtually untrimmed edges. Binding worn along the extremities and sides slightly damaged.

     Bibl. Natura Artis Magistra 1390; Nissen, ZBI, 2700; Poggendorff II, col. 59.

The patron saint of Mexico City, martyred in Japan,

with engraved title-page & 16 plates, printed in Mexico City and preserved in a contemporary Mexican binding

45. [MUNIBE, José María] – Breve resumen de la vida y martyrio del inclyto Mexicano, y proto-martyr del Japon, el Beato Felipe de Jesus. Añadidas algunas obvias reflecciones en honor del mismo Heroë esclarecido, y de esta dichosisima civdad felize en ser su pátria. Por un eclesiàstico de este arzobispado, afecto del santo, quien lo dedica á la exemplarísima, religiosísima provincia del santo evangelio de esta civdad de México. Mexico City, “Oficina Madrileña” [literally “Madrid office”, a name used by the Jáuregui heirs], 1802. 4º (19.5 × 14 cm). With engraved title-page dated 1801, an engraved portrait of Felipe de Jésus (both engravings by Montes de Oca) and extra-illustrated with 15 (of 30) engraved plates also by Montes de Oca, from the closely related 1801 print series originally issued with the same engraved title-page. With the engraved title and all 16 plates coloured by a contemporary hand and many words, letters and punctuation marks on the two title-pages coloured red. Contemporary Mexican tanned sheepskin mottled in an irregular tree pattern, gold-tooled spine.

$ 11 000

Rare account of the life and Japanese martyrdom of the patron saint of Mexico (and first Mexican saint of any kind), Felipe de Jésus (1575 or ca. 1572–1597), with 15 additional plates from the extremely rare and closely related print series of De Jésus’s life, issued one year earlier. The engraved title-page, portrait, and the 15 additional plates from the 1801 print series were all produced by José María Montes de Oca (1668–1748), one of the most important book illustrators and engravers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and all are here coloured by a contemporary hand. De Jésus was a Franciscan missionary who grew up in Mexico and worked at Manilla in the Philippines from 1590 to 1596. On his way back to Mexico a storm forced his ship to land on the Japanese coast, where it was confiscated and he and the other passengers and crew imprisoned. The fact that there were soldiers and cannons on board lead the Japanese authorities to interpret the landing as an attack, so De Jésus and the others were arrested, imprisoned at Kyoto, their ears were cut off, and at Nagasaki on 5 February 1597 they were crucified and executed (pierced by two spears). The print series that supplied the extra illustrations, with the engraved title Vida de San Felipe de Jesus protomartir de Japon y patron de su patria Mexico, is Montes de Oca’s finest work, one of the earliest print series published in Mexico, and the 15 plates added to the present book include De Jésus’s arrival in the Philippines, his ship in the storm, his imprisonment in Kyoto and his execution at Nagasaki. The. The delicate engravings add visual power to Munibe’s account of De Jésus’s life. If Munibe gives the correct date of birth, De Jésus was only 21 when martyred in Japan.

With a faint pencilled inscription on the back of the engraved title-page. With a worm hole through the front board and nearly half the leaves, occasional small marginal worm holes, and an occasional faint smudge or spot, but otherwise in very good condition and with generous margins. The colouring sometimes bleeds through the paper, but since the plates are blank on the back this presents no problems. The binding shows several chips and scuffs, but the lowest 3 gold-tooled flowers on spine are well preserved and the whole remains structurally sound. Very rare extra-illustrated copy of an early Mexican work on Japan, in a contemporary Mexican binding.

     Medina, Imprenta en Mexico 9461; Palau 35446 & 184665 & 363045; Sabin 76029; WorldCat (10? copies of Resumen, including some incomplete, and 3 copies of Vida).

One of the greatest bird books of all time, with 446 coloured plates, plus 1 extra plate

58. SELIGMANN, Johann Michael, George EDWARDS and Mark CATESBY – Sammlung verschiedener ausländischer und seltener Vögel, ... [erste-neunter … Theil] – Nuremberg, Johann Joseph Fleischmann, 1749–1776. 9 parts in 3 volumes. 2º. With 3 different engraved frontispieces, 1 large engraved folding map, 445 (of 473) engraved illustration plates numbered in 5 series plus 1 plate by Seligmann numbered “115” in part 4 but not normally included. With all the usual illustration plates (plus the map) coloured by a contemporary or near contemporary hand, but the extra plate uncoloured. Near contemporary uniform gold-tooled calf, gilt edges.

$ 52 500

First German edition, with the plates newly made for this edition and including new material, the text combining German translations by Georg Leonhard Huth of three important English ornithological works: George Edwards’s A natural history of uncommon birds (1743–1751) and Gleanings of natural history (1758–1764), and Mark Catesby’s Natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (second ed. 1748–1754). Seligmann (1720–1762) brought these materials together and engraved the illustration plates and two of the frontispieces. The book is especially strong for American and Asian birds. The parts and plates were published in instalments and while many copies lack the whole of part 9, the present copy includes the plates and accompanying leaves of text of this part up to plate XXIV. It further includes one (uncoloured) plate, a portrait of an indigenous North American man, not recorded in the literature, though engraved by Seligmann.

With 2 tears in the folding map, almost entirely in the sea, but generally in very good condition. The bindings are slightly scuffed and have some professional restorations along the extremities, but are otherwise very good with most of the tooling clear.

     Anker 462; Fine Bird Books, p. 73; Nissen, Vogelbücher 857.

First great international investment fraud and scandal

62. [TAFEREEL DER DWAASHEID]. LAW, John (subject) – Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid, vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der actie, bubbel en windnegotie, in Vrankrijk, Engeland en de Nederlanden, gepleegt in den Jaare MDCCXX. [Amsterdam], 1720[=ca. 1740?]. 2º. With 75 engraved plates (1 included twice). Most are double-page and several are larger folding sheets, including several maps and the plate with the complete set of 52 playing cards. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spine.

$ 6 500

A famous collection of texts and plates satirizing the Englishman John Law, his Mississippi Company, and the international land and trading speculation in worthless shares of the South Sea Bubble of 1719–1720, which resulted in an international scandal. The speculation began in Paris, London and Hamburg, spreading to the Netherlands in the summer of 1720. While plays satirizing the speculation already opened in September 1720, the bubble really burst in October. The book also provides the texts of official documents relating to the Dutch trading companies involved. Text and plates were originally issued in parts, and were continuously supplemented over a longer period. Work on the book as a whole must have begun after the Amsterdam disturbances of 5 October 1720, though some of the plays and other items had been separately published before that. Within each edition the number and makeup of the plates varies greatly from copy to copy.

Binding rubbed along the extremities, front hinge cracked. Textleaves browned and several foxed, affecting some of the plates, most plates in good condition, some with a marginal tear, three plates with a larger tear affecting the illustration (Muller nos. 11, 51, 56). Overall a good copy.

     Kress 3217; Muller, Historieplaten II, pp. 103–124; Sabin 28932.

The most comprehensive and authoritative source

on the Dutch colonial empire in the East, with 268 engraved plates

67. VALENTIJN, François – Oud en nieuw Oost-Indiën, vervattende een naaukeurige en uitvoerige verhandelinge van Nederlands mogentheyt in die gewesten, ... Te zamen dus behelzende niet alleen een zeer nette beschhryving van alles, wat Nederlands Oost-Indiën betreft, maar ook ‘t voornaamste dat eenigzins tot eenige andere Europeërs, in die gewesten, betrekking heeft. Dordrecht, Johannes van Braam; Amsterdam, Gerard onder den Linden, 1724–1726. 5 volumes. 2º. With engraved frontispiece, engraved dedication to Egidius van den Bempden, engraved author’s portrait, 265 engraved plates (many folding), 8 letterpress folding tables, and 80 engravings in text. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines. All volumes rebacked with the original backstrips laid down and with modern endpapers.

$ 62 500

Complete set of the richly illustrated first edition (the only early and only unabridged edition) of Valentijn’s monumental study of the East Indies and especially Ambon, where he lived for more than 15 years. Besides being the most comprehensive and authoritative source about the Dutch colonial empire in the East for centuries, its literary qualities were praised even by modern critics. The work is also of particular interest for Australia as it “for the first time gave a complete and accurate account with maps and drawings of Tasman’s first voyage”, including information based on manuscripts now lost. Valentijn is “remarkably complete; the book is therefore a goldmine overflowing with information; he brought together everything accessible in his day ... [and] includes much information that one can find nowhere else; for that reason it remains indispensable” (NNBW). Valentijn (1666–1727) went to the East Indies as a minister of the church in 1685 and settled in Ambon.

Rebacked, as noted, and restored along the extremities. A very good copy, with only some occasional spots and a couple minor stains.

     Howgego D-88; Landwehr & V.d. Krogt, VOC 467; Schilder, Australia unveiled, p. 152; for Valentijn: NNBW V, cols. 989–990.

Muito ficou por dizer e mostrar, mas isso ficará para vós quando folhearem atentamente este precioso catálogo, ou, para os mais “felizardos”, que tenham o privilégio de se deslocarem e  visitarem a Exposição.

Quanto às escolhas volto a frisar que são muito pessoais e como tal susceptíveis de discordância (…e ainda bem que assim seja!)

Saudações bibliófilas.