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Hünersdorff Rare Books

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book (2)

H.H. Sir Jogindra Sen Bahadur, last Raja of Mandi with first wife Rani Amrit Kaur Princess of Kapurthala & son ‘Prince Tibu’

INDIAN ROYALTY : Signed official photograph of the ruling princely family of Mandi for presentation on the occasion of the Raja's Investiture Durbar on 13th February 1925 Official signed portrait photograph (27.8 x 20.6cm) of Col.H.H. Sir JOGINDRA SEN BAHADUR Raja of Mandi (1904-86), his wife Rani Amrit Kaur and their son Tikka Yoshodan Singh, aged 15 months, for presentation on the occasion of the young Raja's Investiture Durbar on 13th February 1925, with autograph signatures of the princely couple; 'Mandi Slailé'(?)dated 26.2.[19]25. Foxing mark in tailend right corner. Jogindra, the last ruling Raja of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, an ancient princely state in the Punjab, was educated at Queen Mary's College and Aitchison College, Lahore. He became of age in 1925; Mandi was under British administration for 12 years during his minority. After Indian Independence, Jogindra decided to merge Mandi with the Republic of India to serve as Indian ambassador to Brazil (1952-56). His glamorous first wife, Rani Amrit Kaur (1904-48), only daughter of the excentric Maharaja of Kapurthala, was educated in England. Famed for her beauty and intellect, she was an early advocate of women's rights in India. In 1930 she separated from her husband to live in Paris. Their son, Tikka Yashodan Singh, known as 'Prince Tibu', here shown sitting on a table, was born 7th December 1923 at Lahore; he served in the Indian Army and married Raikumari Meena Devi (born 1926), daughter of the late Raja Dalip Singh of Dhami; he died in 1980.
  • $594
book (2)

Cecilia Gonzaga,Mantuan Renaissance beauty, famed for her learning & chastity becomes a nun and is praised by the pope.

Gregorius Connarus. Epistola Gregoriy connari Apostolice Sedii Protonotarii ad illustrem Virginem Ceciliam de Gonzaga. Gregorius Connarus. Epistola Gregoriy connari Apostolice Sedii Protonotarii ad illustrem Virginem Ceciliam de Gonzaga. Manuscript on paper [Italy 1448]. (232 x 185 mm) [9 + 1 blank] leaves penned in an Italian humanistic miniscule including notes by the author on last 2 pages, corrections and marginal notes with throughout marked at end: Bologna, 3rd July. (and :) Gregorius Connarus. Epistola Gregory connari Prothonotary ad Joannes Monacum Cartusine. [6] leaves penned in the same humanistic miniscule including corrections and marginal notes throughout ending : 'johannes maguntinus hunc libellum excripsit 1448'. Folding marks in centre. £ 2600 I: A letter of congratulation by the papal protonotary apostolic Gregory Connarus to the Renaissance beauty Cecilia Gonzaga (1426-51), admired for her learning and chastity, who had become a Clarissan nun in 1445 after refusing a dynastic marriage demanded by her father, Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1395-1444). Connarus praises her for renouncing worldly honours and pleasures and for devoting her life to God; he exhorts her to exchange her studies of the poets inspired by her tutor Victorinus for reading the works of the Holy Fathers. The letter would have been sent on the instructions of the Venetian pope Eugene IV, born Gabriele Condulmer. II: Letter by the papal protonotary apostolic to a Carthusian monk. The manuscript is well preserved; it was originally bound in a sammelband with numbers inked in blank tailend margins. For references to manuscripts by Johannes Maguntinus (Johann of Mainz), see : Marie Antonietta Casagrande Mazzoli & Mauro (University of Udine)'La tabula ad regandum' recording 23 manuscripts by Johannes Maguntinus; Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum, A Finding List of uncatalogued or completely catalogued humanistic manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other libraries (1965) vols II 423; III 197b; V 463b; Studi Italiani di Filologia Classica, vol. 17, Florence, Seeber, 1902.
  • $7,262
  • $7,262
book (2)

German baroque therapeutic use of excrements for curing a variety of ailments, a mirror of popular scatology

Paullini, Christian Franz. Neu=vermehrte, Heylsame Dreck=Apotheke Paullini, Christian Franz. Neu=vermehrte, Heylsame Dreck=Apotheke, wie nemlich mit Koth und Urin fast all, ja auch die schwerste, gifftigste Krankheiten, und bezauberte Schäden vom Haupt biß zu Füssen, inn=und äusserlich, glücklich curieret worden.nun zu vierten mahl.verbessert, und.vermehrt. Frankfurt & Leipzig, widow of Friedrich Daniel Knoche & Eßlinger, 1748. 2 parts in 1 volume, 8vo. Engraved frontispiece + [1]f title in red & black + [20]f preface + 436p of text + [2] title & preface + 474p of text. Contemporary half vellum, sprinkled boards, worn. Enlarged edition of a baroque pharmacological manual compiled by the Thuringian town physician and polimath Paullini (1643-1712) which is thought to be the first study suggesting the therapeutic use of excrements. The author presents a large collection of prescriptions based on human and animal excreta to be used as remedies to cure a great variety of ailments including cases of severe poisoning. His sources purport to be ancient and current medical publichations and traditional popular recipes handed down orally. The book also includes humorous scatological anecdotes showing the author to be an entertainer and charlatan. First published in 1697, this is his best-known work, here in its 4th revised edition, posthumously published and enlarged with second part taken from the author's notes. Paullini, acting physician to the Duke of Brunswick and later town- physician of Eisenach, made his reputation as a prolific polyhistorian. He corresponded with Leibniz and was elected to the most prestigious German learned societies. Many of his alleged historical sources were later exposed as forgeries. Last quire lightly waterstained, occasional browning in gutter, otherwise a good copy with copious contemporary manuscript notes on fly leaves and with sections marked with stubs to use as a finger-index.
  • $1,651
  • $1,651
One of the best editions of Fernel's medical works with additional material. It contains the Pathologia which introduces the term 'pathology' in its modern sense and describes gonorrhoea as an independent infection of the bladder .

One of the best editions of Fernel’s medical works with additional material. It contains the Pathologia which introduces the term ‘pathology’ in its modern sense and describes gonorrhoea as an independent infection of the bladder .

Fernel, Jean François, Opera medicinalia. Fernel, Jean François, Opera medicinalia, nempe phisiologia, pathologia et terapeutica seu medendi ratio, quibus adiecimus de abditis rerum causis. Venice, Rutilio Borgominieri, 1565. 4to. [18]f + pp13-655 (misnumbered 659) + [1 blank]p. Roman & italic letter with some Greek. Printer's woodcut device on title. Historiated initials. 18th century calf, spine gilt, worn, woodblock red. One of the best editions of Fernel's medical works with additional material. It contains the Pathologia which intorduces the term 'pathology' in its modern sense and which Garrison calls the 'first explicit treatise on special pathology'. It also includes the Physiology libri septem, the first work to deal solely with physiology and the first to call it by name. Gonorrhoea is also described here as an independent infection of the blader apart from the chapter on lues in which the various modes of contact transmission (syphilis insontium) are ennumerated. Fernel (1497-1558), physician to Henri I of France, was one of the teachers of Vesalius. He was the first to describe many diseases such as appendicitisand endocarditis. Very good copy with contemporary ownership signature of 'Annibalis Magnocaballo' in tailend title margin; Hannibale Magnocavallo (1543-96), a physician and writer at Pavia was born a nobleman in Cuccaro, Piedmont and recorded as an academician at Casale Monferrato. Durling 1462; Garrison-Morton 2271; not in Adams, Wellcome, no copy in British Library.
  • $1,651
  • $1,651
book (2)

Gradostroitel’stvo (Urban Planning).

Bunin, A.V., L. Ilyin, N.Ch. Poliakov, V.A. Shkvarikov. 4to. 326 + (2)pp. Chapter headings decorated with ornamental capital & linear key pattern in rust brown. With coloured lithograph frontispiece & 367 illustrations in text from plans, photographs, engravings & diagrams, several full-page or half-page, 5 folding. Contemporary publisher’s cloth, gilt title on cover, & within red base on spine, small photographic view of Moscow pasted on front cover, spine & corners a little worn. A history of town planning in respect of possibilities for Moscow. Extensively illustrated, showing classical forms of architecture from Egypt, Greece, Rome, Europe, England & the USA. Specific features are enlarged for commentary, and there is a bibliography in 14 sections (5pp) of relevant publications including works on Indian architecture. The architects who compiled the work during the Stalinist era (Andrei Bunin 1905-77, Lev Ilyin 1880-1942, Nicolai Polyakov 1898-1969, Vacheslav Shkvarikov, 1908-71) were members of the Architectural Academy. In good condition, binding a little worn at spine, & corners, unobtrusive stamp below title, ‘printed in Soviet Union’, & at end, stamp of Buenos Aires bookshop. The volume was owned by the eminent Argentinian architect & town planner, Carlos della Paolera (1890-1960) and has a few neat pencil notes. He lived in Paris during the early part of the 20th century, travelled widely & built an extensive working library.
  • $508
Handbook on breeding

Handbook on breeding, training, nomenclature and colours of horses remarkable for its exceptionally life-like illustrations of the typical movements, behavioural patterns and anatomical detail of 63 animals in a series of 34 lively hand-coloured woodblocks

Hirasawa, Kyokuzan. Kayo Hiso (on training horses) Hirasawa, Kyokuzan. Kayo Hiso (on training horsesHandbook on breeding, training, nomenclature and colours of horses.Koto (Edo) Suhara Mohe shi, Kansei Gannen [1789]. 3 vols in large 8vo (267 x 183mm). I: Title inside front cover + 46 pages within meander patterned ornamental border including a 2nd title, [26] pages of calligraphic text & 19 full-page hand-coloured woodblock illustrations; II: [64] pages within meander patterned ornamental border including title, 44 pages of calligraphic text & 15 full-page hand-coloured woodblock illustrations of horses; III: Supplement entitled Draft : 32 pages of calligraphic text within line border. Publisher s paper boards decorated in blind with title slips pasted on upper covers; stitched & folded in Japanese style. Preserved in modern cloth folder. Influential treatise on the breeding, training, nomenclature and colours of horses remarkable for its exceptionally life-like illustrations of the typical movements, behavioural patterns and anatomical detail of 63 animals in a series of 34 lively hand-coloured woodblocks by Sekine Shinbukoku after designs by the artist Fuyo-gi Suzuki (c1749-1816). 12 full-page images represent individual horses, 16 show pairs and 6 are playful compositions of 3 animals interacting. The poignancy of observation evident in the illustrations suggests that the artist might have been a horse breeder himself. The author, Kyokuzan Hirasawa (1733-91), also known as Gengai Yamauchi, was a Confucian writer from Kyoto.Some worming in edges of blank margins neatly repaired, light traces of wear in corners and some outer edges, otherwise very well preserved. See: Hawks & Perry, Japan opened: compiled chiefly from the narrative of the American expedition to Japan, in the years 1852-3-4 (1858): One of [the] specimens of art presented to the commodore is a book . illustrated . from woodcuts of bold outline. printed with a tint to distinguish each in the various groups of the animal by sober grays, reds, and blacks. a breed of small stature and finely formed limbs . There is great freedom of hand shown in the drawing. The animals are represented in various attitudes, curving, gambling, and rolling upon the ground - positions requiring and exhibiting an ability in fore-shortening which is found . in Asiatic art . (2) Bartlett and Shohara, Japanese Botany During the Period of Wood-block Printing (1961): the pictures of horses which so greatly impressed the Americans . appeared much earlier in a work of Kyokuzan. entitled Kayo Hiso .
  • $4,621
  • $4,621
Hojutsu densho-kan (Secret Gun Book).

Hojutsu densho-kan (Secret Gun Book).

[Anonymous author & artist]. Pictorial manuscript paper scroll (1062 x 25 cm). Dated on stylistic grounds to 17th or early 18th century. Emakimono manuscript paper tutorial scroll depicting the traditional Japanese martial art hojutsu, or the art of gunnery in 130 segments containing forty-five large multi-coloured drawings mostly of wild life suitable for hunting and shooting in their habitat but also including a design of a gun posed on a barrel, portrayals of 3 armed huntsmen (one galloping) and 4 target panels including a large fan. Among the exquisite paintings are a deer, a wild boar, a fox, a fish, a heron, cranes, pheasants and other wildfowl, a falcon, geese, ducks, a butterfly and a dragonfly; the birds are shown in their habitat of plants, trees and rocks. The images of wild life selected are marked with red target points and sometimes additional red lines to indicate the precise manner of shooting them which is explained in the accompanying calligraphic text. The arms of the three huntsmen (one gallopping on a horse) are also marked and discussed for their use. The scroll is in near fine condition considering its age; a few folds and wormholes expertly repaired, occasional light offsetting and minimal traces of wear, otherwise in excellent condition, intact with its original gilt floral decorative paper wrappers; lightly worn at edges. Shooting with guns was considered a privileged sport for the Japanese aristocracy rather than a weapon used for fighting in battle. The first matchlock guns were imported to western Japan and Tanegashima Island in 1543 from South East Asia, where they were first introduced by the Portuguese. They were initially used in Japan as gifts, or for hunting, but were then gradually adopted by the Samurai warrior class.
  • $11,223
  • $11,223
Habilitado por el Rey N[ues]tro S[eño]r D[on].

Habilitado por el Rey N[ues]tro S[eño]r D[on].

Ferdinand VII King of Spain (1808, 1813-1833) Fernando VII. Manuscript in brown ink on paper penned in a neat legible hand including corrections, deletions and footnotes, dated at end 1 May 1833. 39 pages of written text in folio, 1 double-page in octavo, last page blank. Each recto page headed with rectangular stencilled royal seal dated 1823 incorporating circular royal arms in the centre. Comprehensive ministerial manuscript draft proposal to the king (‘Ex[elentisi]mo Señor’) to incorporate the Junta de Cria Caballar (Horse breeding Board) into the recently created Ministerio de Fomento (Ministry of Development) in order to achieve a more economic and efficient administration of national studs. The substantial draft in 44 paragraphs discusses various aspects of the proposed reforms and for the legislation on horse breeding in Spain from both the technical and political point of view with interesting comments. It argues in favour of removing the Junta de Cria Caballar (Horse Breeding Board) from the Secretaria de Despacho de Guerra (War Ministry) in order to incorporate it into the recently formed Ministerio de Fomento (Ministry of Development) for both economic and technical reasons, dwelling on the expenses of the Suprema Junta de Caballeria in transformation. The draft represents an attempt at modernising the cumbersome Bourbon administration of Ferdinand VII who died in September of the same year. The writer stresses the benefits of improved horse breeding for national agriculture, trade and for effective formation of cavalry. Referring to ancient times, he seeks to recreate the famous breeds of Spanish horses, calling Spain the ‘Arabia of Europe’ and he emphasises the importance of royal encouragement and direction. The writer actually suggests that the king’s younger brother, Infante Carlos Maria, later the Carlist pretender to the throne, should become protector of horse breeding in Spain. Special attention is given to the management of studs in Andalucia, Murcia and Estramadura and to the importance of regular and diligent government inspection. The draft covers 34 pages dated ‘Madrid, 1 May 1833’ at the end; it is followed by 2 supplementary pages entitled ‘Gastos’ providing the considerable annual administrative expenses of the present Suprema Junta de Caballeria (Horse Breeding Board) for the year 1832 and by three pages entitled ‘Productos’ containing actual figures of the numbers of foals born to mares in the same year to date. Edges tailend corners of 2 leaves affected by water staining, otherwise the manuscript is in excellent archival condition.
  • $4,621
  • $4,621
book (2)

Exposition Universelle de 1855.

Royal copy of Paris Universal Exhibition Arts Catalogue 1855 PARIS - Exposition Universelle de 1855. Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, gravure, lithographie et architecture des artistes vivants étrangers et Français. Exposés au Palais des Beaux-Arts Avenue Montaigne, le 15 Mai 1855. Paris, Vinchon imprimeur des Musées Imperiaux, 1855. 8vo. lix + [1] + 626p (to include 3 supplements listed in contents page, cited frequently in text). Original cloth-backed chagrin boards, title label and Royal Hannovarian cypher (crowned stag crest) gilt-stamped on spine; shelf label numbered in ink pasted in top corner of back cover. Book-block in red. Light wear to edges. The international exhibition was held in the Champs-Élysées from May to November 1855. The catalogue lists 5112 exhibits displaying the work of painters, sculptors, architects, engravers and lithographers. Artists are represented from 26 countries round the world including France, Great Britain, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Austro-Hungary, Tuscany, the German states, Prussia, the USA, Mexico, Turkey and Peru. Where known, ownership previous exhibitions, address & short biography of artist are given, sometimes with notes on the piece. The preliminaries provide rules for exhibiting and lists of judges in the various sections, as well as details of medals awarded in the 1853 Exhibition. In very good condition. From the library of George V (1819-78), last King of Hannover exiled at Gmunden.
  • $462
book (2)

Dresden Baroque connoisseur Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn advertises his choice collection of paintings for sale

Lettre à un Amateur de la Peinture avec des Eclaircissemens Historiques sur un Cabinet et les Auteurs des Tableaux qui le composent. Ouvrage entremêlé de Digressions sur la vie des plusieurs Peintres modernes Hagedorn, Christian Ludwig von & Franz Christoph Janneck. Lettre à un Amateur de la Peinture avec des Eclaircissemens Historiques sur un Cabinet et les Auteurs des Tableaux qui le composent. Ouvrage entremêlé de Digressions sur la vie des plusieurs Peintres modernes. Dresden, George Conrad Walther, Libraire du Roi, 1755. 8vo. Engraved frontispiece + [1]f title + 368 p text + [8]p with index of artists mentioned + [6]p of errata. Contemporary speckled boards, rubbed, with crowned ownership initials C.L. v. B.P. stamped in blank margins of title. First edition of a promotional letter advertising a distinguished private collection of paintings for sale at Dresden. Hagedorn (1712-80), Director of the Art Gallery of the Prince Elector of Saxony, here advertises his own choice collection of paintings in the first twenty pages and discussing some of the highlights, followed by a detailed discussion of individual paintings and artists mentioned by Franz Christoph Janneck (1703-61), a celebrated Austrian painter of festive gatherings much admired by his friend Hagedorn. Janneck provides biogrphical sketches of both greater and lesser artists represented in the collection as well as others only mentioned; the artists thought to feature for the first time in a volume about painting are marked with an asterisk. The frontispiece etching by Pierre-Jules Hutin (ca. 1720-1763) is notable for including a female figure engaged in aesthetic debate; two groups of figures are deep in discussion in an artist s studio; a painting of Leda and the Swan on an easel in the left foreground is studied by two male connoisseurs and a woman; one of the men wearing glasses is seated in front of the painting, the other holds up an eye glass to it; the woman stands facing them with a paint brush in animated comversation. Cicognara 1162.
  • $1,122
  • $1,122
book (2)

Report to a committee of the commissioners considering the subject of illuminating lighthouses by means of lenses, on the new dioptric light of the Isle of May.

[1]f + 11 + [1 blank]p.(and:) Report by a committee of the Royal Society regarding the new dioptric light of the Isle of May communicated to the commissioners of northern lights, 28th October 1836. Edinburgh, Neill & Co., 1836. [1]f + 4p. The 4 items bound together in contemporary red morocco decorated in gilt with ornamental patterns to sides within gilt line borders; spine richly gilt including title inscription; edges gilt; spine lightly worn. First editions of these essays on the author’s improvements in design of dioptric apparatus used in lighthouses based on the investigations of the French civil engineer Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827) who had invented the dioptric lens in 1822. Alan Stevenson (1807-65), member of an illustrious family of Scottish engineers and uncle of the writer, Robert Louis Stevenson, succeeded his father as engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board (1843-53); he made his reputation by constructing a dozen remarkable lighthouses, the most celebrated being the Skerryvore Lighthouse in the Inner Hebrides completed in 1844, which is considered a feat of Victorian engineering. He became an internationally famous lighthouse engineer and received honours from several foreign monarchs. Author’s presentation copy to Queen Victoria on the date of her accession to the throne inscribed: ‘To Her Majesty the Queen with the most devoted sentiments of the Loyalty and Respect of Her Majesty’s faithful subject and servant, The Author. (dated:) Edinburgh, June 20th 1837.’ A fine presentation volume bound for Queen Victoria; bookplate of Jorge Beristain.
book (2)

The first attempt at a scholarly interpretation & restoration of the German language

Schottel, Justus Georg. Ausfuehrliche Arbeit von der Teutschen Haubtsprache worin enthalten. . Uhrankunft, Uhralterthum, Reinlichkeit, Eigenschaft, Vermoegen . . zumahl die Sprachkunst und Verskunst teutsch und . lateinisch . in fuenf Buecher und teutsch ausgefertiget. Brunswick, Christoff Friederich Zilliger, 1663. 4to. With engraved architectural frontispiece with two richly ornamented pillars supporting a drapery title inscription in Latin & German hoisted up by costumed male figures standing below against a picturesque landscape in the background, printed titles in German & Latin + [14] ff (containig 5 pp of source index) + 1468 pp (misnumbered 1466] + [14] ff including 16 pp of index & [1] errata leaf. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, worn; traces of calligraphic title inscription on spine. The most important early work on the German language, the direct precursor of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik', published almost two centuries later. Schottel (1612-76), philologist, grammarian and poet, was an influential member of the 'Palmenorden', one of the leading German baroque literary societies dedicated to the purification of German grammar in accordance with the principles of Martin Opitz. The comprehensive work arranged in five parts treating the etymological origins, grammar, rules for prose and verse composition and a bibliography of notable authors in the German language is considered one of the finest achievements of the literary movement inspired by the restoration of the German language and the revival of German cultural values after the destructive multiple foreign occupation during the Thirty Years' War. The dedication is to the scholarly bibliophile, Duke August of Brunswick (1579-1666), who had first employed the author as a young man as court tutor from 1638. 'Schottel ventured into the field of philology armed with a feeling for the right thing possessed by no one before him, and the book makes him, if not the father, then the grandfather of Germanic philology.The fifth book, 'Von Teutschland und Teutschen Scribenten', offers something like a literary history . In the third treatise of the fifth book he deals with German proverbs and proverbial phrases pp. 1101-47' (Faber du Faur, German Baroque Literature, 697). Goedecke III, 118. The noted British linguist John George Robertson (1867-1933) called it 'The best grammatical work of the 17th century'. A good unsophisticated copy in its original binding; some very light toning throughout owing to paper quality, occasional traces of waterstaining in edges of blank margins, otherwise a clean, attractive copy with a near contemporary ownership signature of a high school teacher at Stuttgart 'Sebast[ian] Kneer, Praec.Gymn.Stutg.' in blank title margin and of W.Baeumlein, an 19th published author on ancient Greek in top corner of front flyleaf.