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Rare and Antiquarian Books

Renaissance

There are many history books available on Biblio, and there are some truly gorgeous rare and antique books about the Renaissance in the Biblio Rare Book Room. The books are in a variety of languages, so be sure to check the individual listings for additional information on the rare and antique book of your choice. Many of the rare Renaissance books featured below in the Biblio Rare Book Room come complete with fantastic illustrations, maps, and other fascinating ephemera.

Results 1 - 15 of 36
Machiavelli's Political Discourses Upon the First Decade of Livy. Interspersed with Various...

Machiavelli's Political Discourses Upon the First Decade of Livy. Interspersed with Various Reflections

by Wickliffe, Robert, 1815?-1850. Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
Seller
Cranston, Rhode Island
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NZ$2,533.80
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Louisville: Prentice & Weissinger, 1840. Soft Cover. 29 p.; 22 cm. The first text of Machiavelli published in the United States and a very rare book.Early Kentucky printing.   Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio. Stock#OB959. Good+, some foxing, original blue paper wrappers, early manuscript annotations on title-page.
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NZ$2,533.80
NZ$4.95 shipping to USA
Commentarii secundo aucti in Libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de Medica Materia. Adiectis...
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Commentarii secundo aucti in Libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de Medica Materia. Adiectis quamplurimis plantarum, & animalium imaginibus, quæ in priore editione non habentur, eodem auctore. Hic accessit eivsdem Apologia Adversus Amathum Lusita... - [AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RENAISSANCE PHARMACOLOGY]

by MATTIOLI (MATTHIOLUS), PETRUS ANDREAE.

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Copenhagen, Denmark
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NZ$10,885.50
NZ$200.00 shipping to USA

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1559. Venetiis, In Officina Valgrisiana, 1559. Folio. (31,5x22,5 cm) Contemporary full Italian vellum. (100),776 pp. + Apologia (having its own title page) 46,(1) pp. Printers woodcut-device at both titles and on last leaf verso. With more than 700 fine wood-cuts in the text (of animals and plants). Light browning to title page, 2 corners repaired, no loss of text, 6 last leaves strengthened in outer margins, no loss of text. A few scattered brown spots and a few marginal notes. In general fine and clean, printed on good paper. Old name on title, Wolffgangus Hendl, 1564 P.V.Q. Scarce third Latin edition of this, the most famous commentary on the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, having here also the text of Dioscorides, who was the originator of the Materia Medica of antiquity. The first edition was printed 1554 and it had fewer and smaller illustrations in the text. "The use of illustrations to aid in describing and identifying plants was taken up enthusiastically by the Italian botanists. Ghini… Read More
Item Price
NZ$10,885.50
NZ$200.00 shipping to USA
Le Premier Tome de lArchitecture.
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Le Premier Tome de lArchitecture.

by Philibert de L'Orme.

  • Used
  • Fine
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Fine
Edition
First Edition. First Issue.
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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NZ$42,230.00
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THE GREATEST BOOK OF RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTUREIllustrated with 205 large woodcuts, including 74 full-page and 7 double-page blocks; magnificent allegorical woodcut title border; large woodcut head-pieces and large floriated and grotesque woodcut initials; leaf I4 slightly taller than the rest of the text block, to accommodate a tall column woodcut, with about 2 cm section at top folded in. Royal Folio. 19th-century ¼-vellum over marbled boards; spine decorated and lettered in gilt; edges gilt. Paris: Fédéric Morel, 1567. First Edition. First Issue. The most influential and most lavishly illustrated handbook of French Renaissance architecture. The first and only published volume. A second volume was planned by the author but never completed.Mortimer, Harvard College Library Cat.: French 16th-Century Books, no.355; Brunet, Supple. I, 888-9; Fowler Architect. coll. 99; Clouzot, Philibert de l'Orme, pp. 90-107; Berliner Ornamentstichkatalog 2362; Pettegree, French Vernacular Books 15434; cf. Adams L… Read More
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NZ$42,230.00
NZ$20.00 shipping to USA
SHAKESPEARE'S HOLINSHED:  The first and second volumes of Chronicles, comprising 1. The...
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London: London: printed [by Henry Denham] in Aldersgate street at the signe of the Starre, 1587. 2nd Edition . Hardcover. Very Good. Second edition; large folio; 3 volumes bound into 2 physical volumes. Vol. 1: [10], 250; [4], 202, [2]pp. Vol. 2: 61, [13], 183, [1]; 421, 424-430, 436-438, 431-433, 439-445, 450-464, [56]pp. Vol. 3: [8], 1080, 1080-1327, [2], 1332-1371, 1371-1421, 1490-1491, 1536-1555, 1574-1592, [62]pp. Mismatching set. Volumes 1-2 bound in 17th century reversed calf (somewhat worn with a few old repairs, hinges cracked, corners and spine ends worn with minor loss), blind rolls to margins of boards, spine with five raised bands, gilt-lettered red leather spine label to second compartment and additional hand-written leather spine label to third compartment, housed in attractive custom-made clam-shell box in red half leather over marbled boards with five raised spine bands and gilt lettering direct to spine in second compartment. Unobtrusive creasing and wear to opening and… Read More
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NZ$31,729.33
NZ$17.95 shipping to USA
De ratione curandi per sanguinis missionem, libri decem: in quibus extirpatis erroneis...
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De ratione curandi per sanguinis missionem, libri decem: in quibus extirpatis erroneis opinionibus passim hodie apud nonnullos vigentibus, omnia ad hoc argumentum pertinentia, secundum Galeni doctrinam explanantur

by AUGENIO, Orazio

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
COLUMBIA, Missouri
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NZ$3,293.94
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1584 Medicine & Surgery Augenio Curandi Renaissance Plague Bloodletting Galen

An important, 16th-century medical treatise by Orazio Augenio! 'De Ratione Curandi' includes a wide variety of medical topics but most famously covers the use and benefits of bloodletting. Known as one of the best Italian physicians of the Renaissance, Augenio incorporated his fondness of Galen into his philosophy-based practice – practices that regularly treated the plague and neuropathology.

Item number: #7490
Price: $1950
AUGENIO, Orazio
De ratione curandi per sanguinis missionem, libri decem: in quibus extirpatis erroneis opinionibus passim hodie apud nonnullos vigentibus, omnia ad hoc argumentum pertinentia, secundum Galeni doctrinam explanantur

Taurini [Turin]: Apud Io. Baptistam Ratterium, 1584.

Details:
·
Collation: Complete with all text pages
o [52], 473, [3]
o Signatures: a-d4 2d4 e4 f2 A-Z4 2A-2Z4 3A-3N4 3O2
·
References: USTC 811410; Edit16 3374; not in Adams or BMC;
·… Read More
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NZ$3,293.94
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Della Historia Vinitiana (Libri XII)
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Della Historia Vinitiana (Libri XII)

by Bembo, Pietro

  • Used
  • very good
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good
Edition
First
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Neenah, Wisconsin
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NZ$1,689.20
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179 pages. Rebound in full vellum; binding tight, all pages clean, no tears, no repairs, some pencil marks. Very slight foxing here and there and delicate age-tinting. Five raised bands, title stamped in gold on red leather label.Scholar, poet, musician, literary figure and Cardinal Pietro Bembo's (1470-1547) vernacular translation of his famous history of Venice (originally in Latin).
Item Price
NZ$1,689.20
NZ$4.00 shipping to USA
Opus Geomantiae Completum in Libros Tres Divisum
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Opus Geomantiae Completum in Libros Tres Divisum: Quorum I. Universam Geomanticam Theoriam, II. Praxim, III. Varias a diversis authorib, decerptas questions co[n]tinet.

by Henricus de Pisis.

  • Used
Condition
Used
Edition
Second
Seller
Great Barrington, Massachusetts
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NZ$4,223.00
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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
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NZ$4,223.00
NZ$20.00 shipping to USA
[Horticulture in ottave] Operetta delle Semente. Nella quale insegna quando si debbe seminare et...
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4° (mm 192x140); ll. (6). Title with large woodcut vignette; another large woodcut vignette to title and head of de' Crescenzi section. Binding of 20th century - signed "Wheeler" - in olive green morocco, gilt. A nice, unsophisticated copy.Extremely rare edition, exquisitely popular, which combines poetic entertainment with the purpose of a peasant almanac, describing when to sow and when to transpose, and from month to month how to do the recollections. It includes a list of tasks for each month taken from Pietro de' Crescenzi (Bologna, 1233 – 1320).After the octaves of the Operetta - Incipit: "Chi si diletta nuove cose udire / sempre levato tien l'occhio e la mente" -the booklet hosts:c. A2v: Operetta piaceuole di tre panieri di frutte - with grapes "lugliola […], moscadella, pisana e la vernaccia, zibibbo, razzese e corso, greco, trebbiano e malvagìa fine, […] canaiuola, galletta e passerine, sancolombane e zappolino et martinacce e lonze e le caprine", figs, pears, apples, etc. - per… Read More
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NZ$14,616.00
NZ$25.00 shipping to USA
Omnia Emblemata Cum Commentariis... par Claude Minorem.
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Omnia Emblemata Cum Commentariis... par Claude Minorem.

by ALCIAT, Andrea.

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
Paris, France
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Item Price
NZ$13,702.50
NZ$9.24 shipping to USA

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Paris, Jean Richer et François Gueffier, 1618.
Large 8vo [174 x 107 mm] of (24) ll., 970 pp. wrongly numbered 968, (15) ll. Bound in full contemporary red morocco, gilt border on the covers, gilt stamped coat of arms on the center, flat spine decorated with the same border, gilt title on the spine, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
Superb and rare illustrated edition of Alciato's Emblems illustrated with 211 beautiful woodcuts (55 x 55 mm) placed within gracious frames.

This edition is enlarged with new comments given by Fédéric Morel that are published here for the first time.
"Andrea Alciato was born in Milan on May 8th, 1492. He went to study law in Pavia and Bologna.
In 1521, he is appointed professor of law at the university of Avignon; he got in this city such great successes, that up to eight hundred people were counted in his audience; but the lack of accuracy put into paying his fees convinced him to go back to Milan. Alciato was one of the first to feel that studying history is… Read More
Item Price
NZ$13,702.50
NZ$9.24 shipping to USA
Hypnerotomachie ou Discours du Songe de Poliphile, Déduisant comme Amour le combat à...
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Paris, Jacques Kerver, 1561.
Folio of (6) ll., 157 ll. illustrated with 181 woodcuts including 13 full-page, (1) leaf with Kerver's mark. Tiny tear in the corner of l. 49, marginal waterstain on few ll. more visible on the last 5 ll. Full marbled sheepskin, triple blind-stamped fillet around the covers, ribbed spine decorated, red edges. Binding from the 18th century.

333 x 220 mm.
"The most important of the three editions given by Kerver of the first translation by Jean Martin, of the most beautiful and most famous Italian book of the Renaissance, published in Venice in 1499 by Aldus." (Pierre Berès).
Brunet, IV, 779 ; Harvard, French, n°147 ; Jean Martin, Un traducteur au temps de François Ier et de Henri II (Cahiers V.-L, Saulnier, 16), Paris, 1999 ; D. Cordellier, Luca Penni, un disciple de Raphael à Fontainebleau, Paris, 2012, pp. 111-113.
It is illustrated with 181 woodcuts including 13 full-page.

The illustration of the beautiful engraved title was recently attributed by Dominique… Read More
Item Price
NZ$31,059.00
NZ$9.24 shipping to USA
Bref et sommaire recueil de ce qui a esté faict, & de l’ordre tenüe à la joyeuse &...
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Paris, Denis du Pré, 1572.
4to [235 x 157 mm] of 53 ll., (1), 9 full-page engravings in the text and one folding engraving out of pagination ; 10 ll., 26, (2) ll. including 1 bl., 9, (2) bl.ll., 6 full-page engravings in the text. Handwritten manuscript on the title.
Bound in full granite-like calf, blind-stamped fillet on the covers, spine ribbed and decorated, mottled edges. Old restorations on the spine. Early 18th century binding.
First edition of one of the most beautiful entries of the French Renaissance containing several plays by Ronsard, Antoine de Baïf, Amadis Jamyn, Jean Dorat, Du Faur de Pibrac, Pasquier,... in first edition.
Mortimer, French, 205-206; Rahir, Dutuit, 676; Picot, Rothschild, 3117; Brunet, II, 1001; Pichon, 4897; Fairfax Murray, French, 152.
One of the beautiful French celebration books of the 16th century recounting the coronation of Queen Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Charles ix and daughter of the Emperor Maximilian ii, which took place in the Abbey of Saint Denis, as… Read More
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NZ$34,713.00
NZ$9.24 shipping to USA
Laberinto d'amore di .M. Giouanni Boccaccio
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Laberinto d'amore di .M. Giouanni Boccaccio

by BOCCACCIO, Giovanni

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
COLUMBIA, Missouri
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
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NZ$1,604.74
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1536 Boccaccio Il Corbaccio Labyrinth of Love Italian Renaissance Venice Rossi

"Human it is to have compassion on the unhappy"
― Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was a 14th-century Italian poet and important humanist during the Renaissance. Following the popularity and successes of 'The Decameron' in 1351, Boccaccio wrote 'Il Corbaccio' a few years later – a story which never reached the fame of 'The Decameron'. Still, the work is a prime example of 14th-century romanticism, following the story of a man yearning for the love a widow and his being haunted by Death in a dream.

This 1536 Italian edition, published under by the name 'Labyrinth of Love', was published in Venice, collected and edited by Pino de Rossi.

Item number: #21990
Price: $950

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni

Laberinto d'amore di .M. Giouanni Boccaccio

Venice: Stampata in Vinegia per Pietro di Nicolini da Sabio, 1536.

Details:
• Collation: Complete with all leaves
o 72 leaves
o Pagination errors expected
o Signatures: A-I8… Read More
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NZ$1,604.74
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Les Essais
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Les Essais

by MONTAIGNE, Michel de

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
  • first
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Edition
First
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
COLUMBIA, Missouri
Seller rating:
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NZ$1,342.91
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1659 1ed Essays of Montaigne French Renaissance Philosophy Foppens Elzevier 3v

First published in 1580, the Essays of Michel de Montaigne were a collection of essays and writings on a variety of topics and content. Montaigne was rather decisive in his rhetoric and used various Ancient Greek, Latin, and Italian texts as examples and references, such as Lucretius and Plutarch quotations. Montaigne himself stated that the goal of his essays was to describe man with 'utter frankness and honesty.' According to the scholar Paul Oskar Kristeller,
"the writers of the period were keenly aware of the miseries and ills of our earthly existence."

Montaigne sought to break man down into his basic features, which, at the time, was extreme volatility. He wrote on marriage being an absolute necessity for raising children, but he also quoted, in the 'Essays,' that "Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out".

This three-volume mixed edition was… Read More
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NZ$1,342.91
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Il cortigiano del conte Baldassar Castiglione. Novamente stampato, et con somma diligentia...
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Il cortigiano del conte Baldassar Castiglione. Novamente stampato, et con somma diligentia rivedvto & corretto

by CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre

  • Used
  • near fine
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used - Near Fine
Binding
Hardcover
Seller
COLUMBIA, Missouri
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NZ$1,604.74
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1562 Italian Renaissance Courtier Book Baldassare Castiglione Courtesan Venice

"Outward beauty is a true sign of inner goodness. Just as with trees the beauty of the blossom testifies the goodness of the fruit." ­– Baldassare Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

A rare printing of Baldassare Castiglione's 'Book of the Courtier.' This work was an important portrayal of a European Renaissance court life and discussed elements of philosophy and customs closely associated with courtier life. Baldassare created a series of fictional conversations that resemble those encountered in a royal court. These conversations discuss humanities, fine arts, drama, classical art, mythology, women, humor, and love. This book was known to have a significant influence on upper class society in the centuries following its release.

Item number: #24053
Price: $950

CASTIGLIONE, Baldassarre

Il cortigiano del conte Baldassar Castiglione. Novamente stampato, et con somma diligentia rivedvto & corretto

In Venetia:… Read More
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NZ$1,604.74
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Trattato della Sanctissima Charità
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Trattato della Sanctissima Charità: Printed 'at the instance’ of the Dominican tertiary nuns of the Monastery of Santa Caterina del Paradiso in Siena: the Essling's copy

by Dominici Giovanni (al secolo Banchini o Baccini Giovanni, Firenze, 1356 o 1357 – Buda, 1419)

  • Used
  • first
Condition
Used - Very Good+
Seller
Milan, Italy
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NZ$17,904.60
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Description:
4°; cc. (4), 180 [recte: 170], (2) [numerosi errori nella numerazione delle carte]; segnatura: †⁴,A-X⁸,Y⁴. Caratteri gotico e romanico. Al frontespizio, grande silografia a piena pagina raffigurante l'autore inginocchiato nell'atto di offrire la sua opera a Cristo in Croce; capilettera silografici. Splendido colophon calligrammatico in forme di Croce. Legatura del sec. XIX - firmata "M. Lortic" in marocchino rosso, armi al centro dei piatti, dorso a cinque nervi con titolo impresso in oro e monogramma 'MV', taglî dorati. Accurati, piccoli restauri marginali - verosimilmente ottocenteschi - alla prima e ultima carta; alcuni fascicoli leggermente bruniti. Nel complesso, copia molto bella, discretamente lavata come imponeva il canone collezionistico francese del secondo Ottocento.
Provenienza: legatura alle armi di Victor Masséna, Prince d'Essling (1836-1910); su un foglio di guardia, etichetta "Antiquariato Librario [Francesco] Radaeli", Milano; Christie's 16 Jun 2005, Libri e autografi, n.… Read More
Item Price
NZ$17,904.60
NZ$25.00 shipping to USA