Illustrations of urban architecture: the evolution of their representation from 1493 to 1616.
First edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle
printed in July 1493, illustrated with 1809 woodcuts.
Schedel, Hartmann. Liber Chronicarum. Chronique de Nuremberg.
la fin: “Consummatu autem duodecima mensis Iulii. Anno Salutis n’re. 1493. »
Nuremberg, 12 juillet 1493.
Large folio [452 x 305 mm], (20) preliminary leaves, 300 ff. and (5) ff. inserted between ff. 266 and 267 (without final blank). Complete with the 3 blank leaves CCLIX-CCLX-CCLXI; inner margin of the double-page map at the end of the volume reinforced.
Bound in 19th Century brown blind-stamped morocco, decorated ribbed spine.
First edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle, illustrated with 1809 woodcuts.
Fairfax Murray, II, 394 ; Hain 14508 ; Proctor 2084 ; B.M.C. II, 437; Muther 424; Schreiber 5203; Dogson, I, 228; Goff S 307; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 533.
Most European towns are engraved on double or single pages: Jerusalem, Rome, Venice, Firenze, Augsburg, Vienna, Nuremberg (345 x 520 mm), Constantinople, Strasbourg, Salzburg, Ulm, Munich, Prague, Basel, Cracow, …
These famous woodcuts were produced by Wolgemut, Albrecht Dürer’s master from 1486 to 1490.
That’s one of the most spectacular incunable evidence about Fifteenth-Century Europe.
« The Chronicle and the Schatzbehalter are the two first important books with original illustrations published at Nuremberg and with the exception of Bredenbach, the earliest books printed in Germany of which the woodcuts can be assigned with certainty to a known draughtsman ». Dogson.
A charming wide-margined copy (452 mm high), complete with the 3 blank leaves that are often missing.
Price: €75 000
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236 towns of the Renaissance finely contemporary hand-coloured.
An exceptional copy of the Braun & Hogenberg
preserved in its contemporary uniform decorated bindings.
Cologne, 1575-1588.
BRAUN, Georg and HOGENBERG, Franz. Civitates Orbis Terrarum.
Cologne, G. von Kempen, 1575-1588.
4 volumes folio bound in contemporary full calf, spines decorated with gilt fleurons, later arms gilt-stamped in the center of covers. Contemporary uniform bindings.
1 preliminary. leaf of volume 4 bound in volume 3, pl. 43 of volume 1 and 25 of volume 4 come from another copy and were bound in the present copy a long time ago, slight browning and waterstaining, pl. 31 and 1 of volume 4 slightly stained, loss in the margin of pl. 54 of volume 2.
The earliest printed book showing all the Western and Mediterranean towns at the end of the Renaissance.
Koeman, II, B & H 1-4.
Volumes 2 and 4 are from the first edition, volumes 3 and 1 are from the second and the fifth Latin editions respectively.
Two other volumes were published few years later, between 1598 and 1617.
The illustration consists of 4 frontispieces and 236 engravings depicting 374 views of towns and plans.
All the engravings were finely contemporary hand-coloured.
The authors of this work are Georg Braun (1541-1622) from Cologne and the engraver Franz Hogenberg (1540-1590).
The “Civitates” were one of the major works from the last quarter of the 16th Century. The publication of this great work spread over 45 years and most of recorded copies are incomplete.
The present work describes towns of France, Italy, Spain and the Levant (volume 1), from the Netherlands, the Channel Islands, Central Europe and Russia (volume 2).
« The supreme value of this work lies in its survey of European towns and cities jus tat the time when draughtsmen were capable of conveying a wealth of information in a single portrayal ».
The earliest, the most beautiful and the most spectacular book of architecture from the Renaissance, dedicated to the representation of towns of Western and Mediterranean world, coloured at the time.
An exceptional copy, complete with all the engravings, preserved in its contemporary uniform decorated bindings, with the frontispieces and the 236 plates finely contemporary hand-coloured.
Provenance: ex libris and arms of the Tempsford Hall Library (from 19th Century).
Price: €275 000
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Two superb illustrated festival books,
preserved in their contemporary binding in decorated vellum.
BOCH, Jean. Historica narratio profectionis et inaugurationis serenissimorum belgii Principum Alberti et Isabellae, Austriae Archiducum.
Antwerp, plantin, J. Moretus, 1602.
[Bound with :]
BOCH, Jean. Descriptio Publicae Gratulationis, spectaculorum et Ludorum, in adventu sereniss. Principis Ernesti Archiducis Austriae, Ducis Burgundiae […].
Antwerp, Plantin, 1595.
2 works bound in 1 volume folio [375 x 250 mm]; I/ 500 pp. and (12) pp. including the 4 engraved titles, the 15 double-page plates, the 13 full-page plates and the 2 pp. of engraved music; II/ 174 pp. and (1) l. including the 2 engraved titles, the 2 pp. of music, the 4 double-page plates and the 29 full-page plates. Marginal restoration to 3 ff. without loss of text (including the printer’s mark leaf).
Bound in overlapped vellum, blind-stamped fillets on covers, central medallion stamped on the upper cover with the mention “Paulus Bernhardus Noribergensis 1599”, spine decorated with blind-stamped fleurons and stars. Foot of spine restored. Contemporary binding.
Two superb illustrated festival books bound together:
I/ First edition of one of the most beautiful festival books printed by at the Plantin Press.
Published in an edition of only 775 copies, this festival book depicts the entrance of Albert of Austria and of his wife Isabella of Spain in the Netherlands.
Ruggieri 1065 ; Landwehr 62 ; Vinet 621 ; Berlin cat. 2945 ; Cicognara 1408 ; Lipperheide Sd14.
The superb illustration comprises 4 engraved titles and 28 large plates by Pieter Van der Borcht (1545-1608), including 15 double-page engravings. They depict the sumptuous festivities organized on this occasion.
The first part of the work describes the festivities in Brussels, the second part, richly illustrated, relates the celebrations in Antwerp. Parts 3 and 4 deal with Ghent and Valenciennes.
II/ Rare first edition of one of the most beautiful baroque festival books.
Ruggieri 1064 ; Landwehr 50 ; Vinet 620 ; Berlin cat. 2944.
It shows the triumphant entrance of the archduke Ernest of Austria into Antwerp in June and July 1594.
The 33 baroque engravings illustrating this work show the architectural compositions (triumphal arches …), the processions, the illuminations produced on the occasion. They were engraved by Pieter Van Der Borcht after drawings by Cornelis II Floris, Joos de Momper and Maartin de Vos.
This book is a masterpiece of baroque illustration.Two superb illustrated festival books bound together in contemporary decorated vellum.
Price: €19 500
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An attractive copy entirely contemporary hand-coloured
and preserved in its original vellum.
BERTIUS, Petrus. Commentariorum rerum Germanicarum Libri Tres.
Amsterdam, apud Joannem Janssonium, 1616.
Blong 4to [238 x 178 mm], (10) pp. including the frontispiece and the plate with the blazon, 732, (2).
Bound in contemporary limp vellum, flat spine with handwritten title. Some slight browning and foxing in margins at the beginning of the volume. Few marginal restorations.
First edition of this pocket atlas dedicated to the architecture, the maps and the views of towns of the German Empire at the very beginning of the 17th century.
Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library, p. 80; Lipperheide, Katalog der Kostumbibliothek, 677; Chadenat, I, 16; Bachmann 15.
In addition to the frontispiece, the rich illustration consists of 26 engraved maps and 101 detailed views of towns. These plates are of the utmost interest as they give information not only about the architecture but also about the way of life of the populations from that time. Among the towns depicted here, we can find: Amsterdam, Strasburg, Basel, Bergen, Bern, Bonn, Colmar, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Heidelberg, Munich, Prague, Riga, Stockholm, Zurich, Vienna, Hamburg, Weimar, …
A fine copy of which the 127 plates were contemporary hand-coloured.
Price: €40 000
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