"Se não te agradar o estylo,e o methodo, que sigo, terás paciência, porque não posso saber o teu génio, mas se lendo encontrares alguns erros, (como pode suceder, que encontres) ficar-tehey em grande obrigação se delles me advertires, para que emendando-os fique o teu gosto mais satisfeito"
Bento Morganti - Nummismologia. Lisboa, 1737. no Prólogo «A Quem Ler»

sábado, 25 de março de 2017

Antiquariaat FORUM and ASHER Rare Books – New eCatalogue on Book History



Peter Meijer Warners Bookshop de Johannes Jelgerhuis, 1820

A Antiquariaat FORUM BV|Tuurdijk 16 | 3997 ms ‘t Goy – Houten | The Netherlands | E–mail: info@forumrarebooks.com | Web: www.forumrarebooks.com e a ASHER Rare Books | Tuurdijk 16 | 3997 ms ‘t Goy – Houten |The Netherlands |E–mail: info@asherbooks.com | Web: www.asherbooks.com lançarm um catálogo sobre Book History & Printing.


Antiquariaat FORUM

Confesso a minha incapacidade de resistir a “folhear” e a admirar a beleza destas magníficos catálogos!

Claro que nunca chegarei a comprar algum livro (a bolsa está cada vez mais curta... ou então os meses cresceram – é uma questão filosófica dramática para um bibliófilo apaixonado pelos livros como eu!)


No livreiro-antiquário

Mas resta-me o prazer de espreitar um pouco cada uma dessas raridades e ficar a conhecer um pouco melhor a história do livro e das suas produções.

Obviamente que não se pode ter tudo, nem tudo comprar – isso não é bibliofilia é mercantilismo ou pior ainda  um vício doentio!


Edmond Rudaux, ilustrador (1902)

Há que seleccionar aquilo de que mais gostamos e, aí sim, tentar reunir o melhor conjunto de obras possível que se consiga.
Mas chegará aquela fase das nossas vidas, com o avançar dos anos e de que eu já me começo a aproximar, em que se coloca a grande questão: “Que fazer com a minha biblioteca?”


Uma biblioteca

Vender, doar, aguardar e ver o que acontece, seleccionar aquilo que mais gostamos e vender só os outros – são tudo opções mas todas elas esbarram com o mesmo sentimento, pois que se aquele livro está ali naquela prateleira foi por uma razão muito específica, então o que farei com ele (ao fim de tantos anos ele já faz parte de mim mesmo!)

Mas deixemos os sentimentalismos e vamos ver o catálogo!

Sobre este catálogo Laurens Hesselink escreveu:

“Dear Friends & Clients,

We are happy to present our new eCatalogue, devoted entirely to Book history.
This eCatalogue [2017 Book history] contains 23 rare books, library and auction catalogues, ancient and modern bibliographies, dictionaries, writing books and other interesting items.
If you prefer to browse online, visit the Recent acquisitions section of our website.
More books on Book history in our online inventories:


Please contact us if you have any questions.”


Catálogo

Como sempre seleccionei as obras que me permitem mostrar mais detalhadamente o livro e bem assim aquelas que pela sua raridade são imperativas de se falar nelas.


"The best of the eighteenth-century rare book bibliographies"



6. DE BURE, Guillaume – Bibliographie instructive: ou traité de la connoissance des livres rares et singuliers. Paris, 1763-1769. 9 volumes. 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gold-tooled spines. Supplement volumes (vol. 8-9) in slighty different mottled calf with gold-tooled spines.
1 950 €


First edition of "the best of the eighteenth-century rare book bibliographies, important for the new classification scheme employed and for the extensive bibliographical data and notes. It is here that the Gutenberg Bible is identified and first described. De Bure was the first in a long tradition of French scholar-booksellers" (Breslauer & Folter). "The long search for a rational order and the demand for a specific professional competence, found expression in the preliminary discourse with which Guillaume-François De Bure (1732-1782) introduced his Bibliographie. ... Taking note of the different viewpoints of academics researchers and booksellers, he defined the respective environments and duties of each, comparing the "science des gens des lettres" and the "science d'un libraire", which had as its focus the typographical characteristics of the book and its commercial value, in order to meet the needs of the "amateur" and the "curieux" and to determine the prices of books" (Balsamo).



Very good set, some volumes with some occasional foxing. Bindings only slightly rubbed along the extremities.
     Breslauer & Folter, Bibliography: its history and development, nr. 107; Balsamo, Bibliography, pp. 128-134.


Catalogue of van Hulthem’s enormous library



10. HULTHEM, Charles van (A. VOISIN, cataloguer) – Bibliotheca Hulthemiana ou Catalogue méthodique de la riche et précieuse collection de livres et des manuscrits. Ghent, J. Poelman, 1836-1837. 6 volumes. 8vo. With lithographed portrait of Charles van Hulthem as frontispiece. Contemporary half goatskin.
2 500 €

First edition of the auction catalogue of the enormous library of the Belgian collector Charles Joseph Emmanuel van Hulthem (1764-1832), containing 31,686 books and 1016 manuscripts.



"it contained choice editions of the classics …, the most complete collection of books from the Plantin press that had been assembled up to that time, a very large number of early books printed in the Low Countries …, many books on art and numismatics …, and a superb collection of materials for the study of the political and literary history of the Low Countries … Voisin prints many bibliographical and critical notes made by Van Hulthem. These notes are not, as is usually the case, lifted from obvious and readily available sources …" (Taylor).



With library stamp ("Libro di F. Lecaldano") on title-pages. Foxed and the binding with the sides rubbed. Otherwise a good set.
     Taylor, Book catalogues, pp. 246-247.


One of the finest and most charming writing books of the Renaissance





17. NEUDÖRFFER, Johann the elder – Ein gute Ordnung und kurtze Unterricht der furnemsten Grunde, aus denen die Jungen zierlichs Schreybens begirlich, mit besonderer Kunst und Behendigkeyt unterricht und geübt möge[n] werden, ... Including: Anweysung einer gemeinen hanndschrift,... Nuremberg, Johann Neudörffer, "1538" [ca. 1539]. 2 parts in 1 volume. Oblong small folio (14.5 x 23.5 cm). With 49 (of 54?) etched calligraphic model plates, including 3 (of 4) folding: 48 printed in mirror-image and 1 right-reading (apparently a counterproof). Two are printed in red ink. With 5 leaves ruled in red, and 45 "rubricated" with gold. 17th-century (?) sheepskin parchment.
22 000 €




Rare writingmaster's calligraphic copper-plate model book, the principal work of the Nuremberg writing master and reckoning master, Johann Neudörffer the elder (1497-1563): one of the finest and most charming writing books of the Renaissance. Neudörffer first produced his model book in 1538 and he etched additional plates to add further leaves over the years, helped in the latest years by his son.





The writing book shows models of alphabets and writing exercises in various hands, with model alphabets as well as calligraphic letters, deeds and documents, Biblical verses, general educational statements, and proverbs. Nearly all are in German and written in gothic hands, but leaf 46 is in Latin and written in a humanistic cursive, and a few others show some humanistic influences.





With bookplate on paste-down. Lacking 4 leaves and with some browning and a small stain in leaf 32, but otherwise in good condition, with occasional spots or minor marginal defects. Binding slightly worn and soiled. A rare and important writing book, in one of the earliest printings.
     Bonacini 1279, 1273;  Doede, Schreibmeisterbücher 3;  Doede, "Joh. Neudörffers Hauptwerk", in: Philobiblon I, pp. 20-29.


Making colour prints for viewing with transmitted light







19. ORME, Edward – An essay on transparent prints, and on transparencies in general. London, the author, Longman & Co., etc. (printed by J. G. Barnard), 1807. Imperial 4to (36.5 x 26 cm). With the text in English and French. With 16 (of 20) engraved "plates" (many in aquatint), including the frontispiece, 1 double-page plate and 4 half-page engravings; plus 6 coloured-paper cut-outs tipped to one page, and 2 wood-engraved tailpieces. 6 of the plates are hand-coloured as published, not only on the front, but also on parts of the reverse, to give special effects when viewed by transmitted light. A seventh plate is also highlighted with silver-gray. Mid-19th-century half calf, rebacked with most of the original gold-tooled backstrip laid down.

4 750 €





A detailed account of techniques for making prints intended for viewing with transmitted light, both as prints for viewing on their own and as decorative windows and window hangings, Chinese and Western lamps, fans, partition screens, panels, etc. The illustrations include many examples of the prints themselves, six of them coloured on both the front and parts of the back (and a seventh highlighted) for viewing with transmitted light. The book also discusses making mock stained-glass by oiling cut-out pieces of coloured paper. Six examples, each with one part oiled and the rest not, are tipped onto one page. The double-page plate contains 17 figures showing transparent prints incorporated into lamps, screens, etc.







Abbey does not follow the book's own numbering. The odd manner of incorporating the engravings, with some on integral leaves but some of the text on inserted leaves, caused confusion leading to irregular pagination.







With the green bookseller's ticket of Matthew Thackray in Manchester on the front paste-down. Lacking 4 plates (3, 6, 11 and 12 by the book's own numbering; 4, 14, 15 and 19 by Abbey's numbering), and with a tear repaired through 1 plate and through 1 page of text. With only minor browned patches from the colouring. The binding is rubbed. Otherwise in good condition.
    Abbey, England 230; not in Tooley, Coloured plates.


The first Arabic-Latin dictionary ever printed





22. RAPHELENGIUS, Franciscus – Lexicon arabicum. Including: ERPENIUS, Thomas. Observationes in lexicon arabicum. Leiden, Franciscus II and Joost Raphelengius, 1613. 4to. Title-page with Plantin's "Labore et Constantia" woodcut device. With engraved portrait of the author. Set in Arabic and roman types. Modern boards.
8 500 €


First and only edition of the first Arabic-Latin dictionary ever printed and the first sizable book in the Netherlands that was printed using Arabic types. The publication of this dictionary portrays the growing interest in Arabic in early 17th-century Europe; not just as an aide in Biblical exegesis, but as an important field of study in its own right. The growing importance of Dutch maritime commerce also stimulated the interest in Arabic as an important language in trading with large parts of the world. Therefore this book was printed in a size small enough for merchants and navigators to carry it with them. The compilation of the dictionary took Raphelengius thirty years during which he also had Arabic types cut to be able to print it.





Numerous contemporary manuscript annotations (some slightly shaved). Title-page with large tear, repaired with tape, some water stains, browned throughout. An important landmark in the study of Arabic in Europe.
     Smitskamp, Philologia Orientalis II, pp. 97-100; STCN (4 copies); Vrolijk & Van Leeuwen, Arabic studies in the Netherlands, p. 17.


Catalogue of a legendary collection






23. [VALLIÈRE, M. le Duc de la]. DE BURE, Guillaume and M. VAN PRAET – Catalogue des livres de la bibliotheque de feu M. le Duc de la Vallière. Paris, Guillaume de Bure fils aîné, 1783. 3 volumes. 8vo. With 5 folding engraved plates. Contemporary calf, richly gold tooled spines.
500 €


Auction catalogue in three volumes of a significant portion of the collection of Louis-César de la Baume-la-Blanc duc de la Vallière (1708-1780). With a list of prices realised, a list of authors, and a list of anonymous works. La Vallière's collection was the largest private collection of it's time, consisting of over 50.000 rare books and manuscripts. After his death part of the library was auctioned by his booksellers, Guilleaume de Bure and M. van Praet. The catalogue present contains 5668 items, volumes II and III list the rarer and more valuable, which were auctioned in 1783, and volume I lists the more ordinary, which were sold in 1784. The items listed are divided into the categories theology, science and art, literature, and history. The list of prices realised states the total proceeds as 464.677 livre and 8 sols.







Lacking the engraved portrait of Vallière. With the arms of the La Blanc family on the title-page. In addition to the printed list of prices realised the prices have been added in manuscript throughout the catalogue. Binding rubbed. A good copy. A nicely presented catalogue of a part of one of the most magnificent collections in history.
     Brunet II col. 554; Graesse II, p. 71; NBG XXIC, col. 99.


O Leitor

São livros como estes que, embora sejam sobretudo de consulta, são fundamentais para ajudarem a elaborar uma boa colecção e a esclarecer dúvidas sobre alguns dos nossos exemplares (este exemplar que possuo está completo? qual a verdadeira edição deste outro? e este é assim tão raro? e muitas outras questões que por vezes se nos colocam.)


Arrumar a biblioteca

Sendo um catálogo um pouco diferente daqueles que por aqui passaram, talvez seja um daqueles que nos deve obrigar a uma maior reflexão sobre a bibliofilia e os seus “segredos".

Boa leitura e analise dos títulos (alguns até são relativamente acessíveis) e ponderem um pouco sobre  o que é construir um boa biblioteca (é mesmo mais complicado do que parece…)


Saudações bibliófilas

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