JUSTIN CROFT ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS JUSTIN CROFT ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS <2> JUSTIN CROFT Catalogue nine <3> JUSTIN CROFT ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS Catalogue 9 Justin Croft Antiquarian Books Ltd, aba, ilab 7 West Street Faversham Kent me13 7je uk +44 1795 591111 +44 7725 845275 www.justincroft.com
[email protected] vat: gb 854 5998 64 Photography: Rachel Thapa-Chhetri Design: Loup Design 2016 <6> <7> 1 ‘ALLAEUS, Franciscus’ [pseudonym of YVES DE PARIS]. Astrologiae nova methodus. Francisci Allaei Arabis Christiani. [Rennes: Julien Herbert, in vice Divi Germani, sub signo Sancti Juliano, 1654]. £12,500 Three parts in one volume, folio (360 × 230 mm), pp. [4], 12, 62, [2], 25, [3] (colophon and final blank leaf). Woodcut ornaments (winged head) to titles to parts 1 and 2 (no title called for in part 3) and elsewhere. 10 full-page engraved illustrations, with a total of 17 engraved volvelles and 10 small ornamental woodcut retainer discs, 9 (of 10) original silk marker strings, one volvelle with expert repair to verso and immobile. Some dampstaining, resulting in fragility to lower margins of a few leaves. Minor repair to foot of title, and to verso of colophon. Contemporary calf. Recent expert repair to spine and joints. Late nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of Hippolyte de la Grimaudière, Chateau de la Hamonais and later bookplate (M.A. Colson). A very good copy. First edition, rare. A remarkable work of astrology and divination, illustrated with 10 moveable diagrams with revolving discs or ‘volvelles’. Lightly disguised as the work of one Francisus Allaeus ‘a Christian Arab’ it is actually the work of Capuchin Friar Yves de Paris, a prolific and mercurial theologian, well versed in the neo-Platonism of Ficino and entirely convinced of the influence of the stars and planets on human history.