2021 Abu Dhabi Book Fair More items are available at our websites: www.forumrarebooks.com www.asherbooks.com ANTIL UARIAAT FORUM Tuurdijk 16 Tuurdijk 16 3997 MS ‘t Goy 3997 MS ‘t Goy The Netherlands The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0)30 6011955 Phone: +31 (0)30 6011955 Fax: +31 (0)30 6011813 Fax: +31 (0)30 6011813 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.forumrarebooks.com Web: www.asherbooks.com v 1.1 · 07 Jul 2021 front cover: no. 47 Exploration of southwest Iran 1. ABBOTT, Keith E. Notes taken on a journey eastwards from Shiráz to Fessá and Darab, thence westwards by Jehrúm to Kazerún, in 1850. [London, Wiley, 1857]. 4°. Modern blue wrappers. € 400 Abstract from the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, vol. 27. Transcript of a presentation held at the Royal Geographical Society, February 23, 1857, by British diplomat Keith Edward Abbott (1814–1873). He was active throughout his career as a diplomat in the Middle East, mostly Persia. In the present work he describes the journey that he undertook in 1850 in southwestern Iran. He takes notes at length of everything that he encountered. In very good condition. The Interpretation of Dreams 2. AHMet IBN SIRIN (et al.). [Kitab al-Jawami (and other works) – Greek & Latin]. Artemidori Daldiani & Achmetis Sereimi f. Oneirocritica. Astrampsychi & Nicephori versus etiam oneirocritici. Nicolai Rigaltij ad Artemidorum notae. Paris, Marc Orry, 1603. 4°. 4 parts in one volume. Title-page printed in red and black. Greek and Latin text in parallel columns. Contemporary full calf on 5 raised bands with giltstamped spine; gilt fillets and ornaments to covers. € 3500 The rare first collected edition of these important works on the interpretation of dreams, containing Latin translations of Artemidorus (by Janus Cornarius), Achmet (by Johannes Leunclavius), Astrampsychus (by Johannes Opsopaeus), and of Nicephorus (by Nicolas Rigault). “Quite a rare edition, by Claude Morel in Paris. Some copies give M. Orry as the publisher” (cf. Schweiger). Of particular importance for Arabic mysticism is the second work, the “Kitab al-Jawami”: the author “Achmet, son of Seirim”, is almost certainly identical with the 8th century Muslim mystic Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sirin. The Arabic work survived only in the present Greek translation (“Biblion oneirokritikon”) prepared in the 12th century. “The author Ahmed served as interpreter of dreams to Caliph Al-Mamun around 820 [...] The mediaeval conflation of medicine with astrology originated with the Arabs. Through the Salernitanian school, which had many Arabic works translated, the notion reached Europe in the 11th century, where it remained predominant as late as the 17th and 18th century [...] In 1577 J. Loewenklau published a Latin translation of the Oneirokritiká of Ahmed, whom he calls Apomasar” (cf. Schöll). Spine-ends repaired. Some browning throughout; an old stamp removed from the title page. An appealing copy. Ebert 1262. Caillet 470. Graesse, Bibl. mag. et pneum. 97. Hoffmann I, 382. Schweiger I, 69. OCLC 14308832. Cf. Schöll, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur III, 487. 3 Air services between UK and UAE 3. [AIR SERVICes – United Arab Emirates]. Treaty Series No. 94 (1972). Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United Arab Emirates for Air Services between and beyond their respective Territories. London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1972. 8°. Original wrapperless covers. € 850 Agreement between the UK and the Government of the United Arab Emirates regarding the operation of airlines between the two countries. Such an agreement had become necessary following the Emirates’ independence in 1971, when the British-Trucial Sheikhdoms treaty expired. “An Innocent Arab Proposing the Destiny of the Universe” 4. ALLaeus, Franciscus. Astrologiae Nova Methodus. Francisci Allaei, Arabis Christiani. [Rennes, Julian Herbert], 1654[–1655]. Folio (235 × 360 mm). With 1 engraved disc in the text of the first count (a repeat of disc 2 of the first volvelle), 3 volvelles in the first section, composed of 11 parts; and 2 volvelles in the second section, composed of 6 parts. Contemporary full vellum. € 15 000 Rare second, expurged edition of this remarka- ble treatise offering predictions for the destiny of European nations, issued without place or printer in the year of the almost unobtainable first edition, most copies of which were burned by the hangman at Nantes and Rennes shortly after publication. The first edition was deemed offensive due to the predictions of five volvelles in the second section which offered horoscopes for Islam, Christianity, France, Spain, and England. A “Figura Sectae Mahometanae” dared to give a horoscope of the Prophet Mohammed and a list of significant events in the history of Islam; this was followed by predic- tions which included the suggestion that a quarter of the world would be Islamic by 1703. The horoscope of Christianity also included dire predictions: indeed, those for the fate of England (ending with the wiping out of the English nation in 1884) caused a serious diplomatic rift, resulting in the English ambassador demanding the book be suppressed. The present edition of the “Astrologiae Nova Methodus” (and subsequent ones) omits the incriminated 7 pages and 5 volvelles; instead, it prefixes a new, two-page introduction entitled “Principiorum Astrologiae Brevis Expositio” (“The Principles of Astrology, Set Out in Brief”), which explains one of the movable discs in detail. The book’s authorship remains a mystery. It is attributed on the title-page to a certain Francisco Allaeio, “Christian Arab”, but this is probably a pseudonym for Yves de Paris, a Capuchin monk known for his anti-establishment views. The third section of the work offers a religious justification for the relevance of astrological prediction, in which the author defends himself as an “innocent Arab proposing the destiny of the universe” (p. 5). Endpapers not pasted to covers; some browning, fingerstaining and edge defects, but still a good, wide-margined copy. A 13-page typewritten German translation of the preliminary matter (“The Fate of the Author” and “The Principles of Astrology”), apparently the work of a German scholar of the 1930s with an attractive hand-drawn title page in red, yellow and black ink, is inserted at the end. Provenance: 1) Heinrich Xaver Baron Wiser, minister of Palatinate-Neuburg at the court of Madrid in the 1690s and at Naples from 1709 to 1713 (his handwritten ownership on the title-page); 2) Johann Oeler, legal advisor to the Barons Sturmfeder (his handwritten shelfmark and ownership, dated Mannheim, 24 Nov. 1806, on front endpaper); 3) Moritz (Carl August) Axt (1801–62), German classicist and educator (his handwritten ownership on flyleaf). Cf. Houzeau/Lancaster 5217. Caillet III, 11557. Thorndike VIII, 310ff. Peignot, Dictionnaire des livres condamnés au feu II, 204f. Dorbon-Ainé, Bibliotheca Esoterica, 61f. 4 The first European illustration of the coffee plant 5. ALPINI, Prosper. De plantis Aegypti liber. [...] Accessit etiam liber de Balsamo alias editus. Venice, Francesco de Franceschi, 1592. 4°. 2 consecutively paginated parts. With woodcut printer’s device to title- page and 50 large woodcut plant illustrations (many page-sized). 18th century marbled wooden boards. All edges sprinkled in red. € 8500 First edition of the earliest treatise on the native Egyptian flora, the author’s most important scientific work. The Italian physician and botanist Alpini (1553–1617) spent three years in Egypt studying botany and hygiene as a companion to the Venetian Consul Giorgio Emi. He was “among the first of the Italian physician-botanists of the 16th century to examine plants outside the context of their therapeutic uses. Today this work is best known for containing the first European illustration of the coffee plant” (Hünersdorff). Alpini writes: “I saw in the garden of Halybey the Turk a tree [...] which is the source of those seeds, very common there, which are called Ban or Bon; from them everyone, Egyptians and Arabs alike, prepare a decoction which they drink instead of wine and which is sold in public bars just as is wine here and they call it ‘Caova’. These seeds are imported from the Arabian peninsula [...]” (f. 26r, transl.). The coffee plant is pictured on f. 26v, captioned “Bon”. Binding rather rubbed and bumped (especially the spine); trimmed somewhat closely at upper edge; occasional brownstaining throughout with the odd waterstain; slight defect to title page repaired by a former owner. A good copy from the library of Karl Martin and Siri Hilda Karolina Norrman (1900–95) with their joint bookplate on front pastedown. Edit 16, CNCE 1244. BM-STC Italian 20. Adams A 803. IA 103.853. Ibrahim-Hilmy I, 32. Gay 1678. Wellcome I, 233. Durling 179. Nissen 20. Pritzel 111. Mueller 5 (& plate I). Hünersdorff I, 29–32. Exotic plants 6. ALPINI, Prosper. De plantis exoticis libri duo. Venice, Giovanni Guerilio, 1656. 4°. Engraved architectural title with portraits of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, 145 finely etched and engraved botanical plates in the text, ornamental initials. Contemporary blind-tooled calf with gilt spine. Edges sprinkled in red. € 3500 Third edition (in fact, a re-issue with changed title page date only) of Alpini’s further observations on exotic plants. The specimens here presented were collected primarily in Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, including many xerophilous plants from Egypt and scores of plants not mentioned in earlier works. The first edition was published posthumously in 1627 and was edited by the author’s son, Alpini Alpini. The work (in all its editions) is much rarer than the author’s bet- ter-known “De plantis Aegyptii”. “Date altered by hand [from 1629] to MDCLVI” (Krivatsy). Prospero Alpini (1553–1617), an Italian physician and botanist, travelled through Greece, Crete, and Egypt from 1580 to 1583 with the Venetian Consul Giorgio Eno.