Printing in the Western world began with Johann Gutenberg and his monumental Bible of 1455. The invention of printing from movable type changed the production of books from being written out by hand, one at a time, to printed editions as we know them today. This led to a vast increase in the publication of books, encompassing a multitude of both religious and secular subjects. Books printed in the fifteenth century, known as incunabula (a term which refers to "the cradle" of printing), are prized as artifacts of the infancy of printing ...
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San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1929. 24mo. (xiv), 54pp. One of 425 copies. Color frontispiece of Plantin, eleven-line color initial to start of text. A survey of the renowned printer's works. Minor soiling, else near fine in full vellum with gilt ruling. Lacking slipcase. More
London: Scolar Press, 1976. Quarto. (4), cxlii ff. One of 500 copies. A facsimile of William Caxton's translation and publication of Aesop's Fables, produced in 1484. Introduction by Edward Hodnett. Fine in full burlap with leather spine label. More
London: A. Bettesworth, C. Hitch, et. al. 1738. Octavo. 548; 266pp. Eighth edition. Frontispiece portrait of L'Estrange. The aesthetic of this edition matches that of the bound-in Fables and Stories, which states that it is a second volume, following up the preceding Fables of Aesop, and is the fourth edition..... More
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey, 2018. Quarto. 63, (ii)pp. One of twenty-five copies (Series 3). With two leaves tipped in, one originating from George Wither's A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient & Moderne (London, 1635), and the other from the Nucleus Emblematum Selectissimorum of Gabriel Rollenhagen. This expansion on the leaf-book motif provides..... More
London: J. and R. Tonson, 1765. Small octavo. 94pp. Frontispiece of a dramatic scene between men and women; title-page vignette of a bust of Gay. The text of Gay's three-act ballad appears here alongside the musical score, set intertextually. Bound in full green morocco with gilt to spine and turn-ins..... More
Antwerp: ex Officina Plantiniana, 1677. (lxii) (714)pp. Illustrated with fourteen full-page copper-engraved plates. Contains the Offices of the Virgin, the Offices of the Dead, the Passion, and Psalms for Vespers. Printed in red and black, with numerous woodcut initials and decorations. A large paper copy of a rare miniature products..... More
(Bologna: Caligola Bazalieri, 1501). Quarto. (94)ff. This edition is based on the version published by Caligola Bazalieri’s brother, Bazaliero Bazalieri, in July 1491. The text is Ovid’s Heroides, a collection of imaginary letters written from ancient mythological heroines to the lovers who abandoned or mistreated them, including Penelope, Dido, Ariadne..... More
Leipzig: Joh. Friedrich Gleditchens, 1740. 16mo. (xvii), 408, 186, (6)pp. Six full-page engravings, three continuous with the collation, three not. With table of contents and index. The book presents a sammelband, in which both installments present excerpted biblical texts with prefatory commentary. Bound in a fashionable contemporary chased silver binding..... More
