CATALOGUE 85 Item 4. Gospels in Slavic. the veatchs arts of the book · catalogue 85 November 206 Hamburg, NY Dear Friends, Renovations on our new premises are almost complete. Later this month, our inventory will come out of storage and our website become active once more. Those who celebrated their birthdays in September and October will be eligible for the birthday website discount then. In the meantime, we offer this small catalogue of new acquisitions. Thank you all for the good wishes you sent—and for your patience. Lynne & Bob The Veatchs Arts of the Book 6145 McKinley Parkway, No. 9 Hamburg, New York 14075 [email protected] www.veatchs.com phone 716-648-0361 ordering information Your satisfaction is guaranteed. All books are returnable, with advance notice. Payment is accepted by check, Visa, Mastercard, and wire transfer. Libraries may request deferred billing. New York State residents must add 8¾% sales tax. Shipping charges are additional. Please make checks payable to “The Veatchs.” A Mardersteig Masterpiece 1. Aesop. THE FABLES OF AESOP. Printed from the Veronese edition of MCCCCLXXIX in Latin verses and the Italian version by Accio Zucco. Verona: Officina Bodoni, 973. Two volumes. 6½ × 0. 280; 22 pages illustrated with 68 woodcuts stencil-colored by Daniel Jacomet, Paris, after a copy in the British Library. Green morocco spines, vellum sides gilt with a Renaissance- style border. Laid in are a prospectus and the list of plates. Fine set in original plastic wrappers and slipcase. Mardersteig here recreates the rare and beautiful 1479 edition of Giovanni Alvise, Verona. The original illustrations have been re-engraved by Anna Bramanti. Jacomet’s coloring of them is jewel-like. In his note, Mardersteig attributes the 68 woodcuts to the Veronese miniaturist Liberale. “It needed a great master to create woodcuts with so many vivid scenes, conceived from the outset as linear black- and- white designs that were given atmosphere and life by colour.” Comparing Liberale’s known miniatures with British Museum copy of Alvise’s Aesop, Mardersteig finds “such similarities in com- position, movements, gestures, garments, and colouring that only Liberale can be considered the artist.” In addition to printing one of the finest Illus- trated Italian books of the 15th century, Alvise was also the first printer to use typographic ornaments cast in lead. These too have been recut for the OB edition. No. 135 of 160 copies. Printed in Centaur type on dampened hand- made Magnani paper watermarked with a goose (as in the original edition). Volume Two is Caxton’s English translation. Schmoller 182. A Century for the Century 78. $5,000 Dignified Book of Pure Typography 2. Anvil Press. Pico della Mirandola. ORATIO DE HOMINIS DIGNI- TATE. Oration on the Dignity of Man. (Lexington, 953). 8½ × 2. 47, (2) pages. Bound by Peter Verheyen (signed on rear doublure) in goat vellum with natural graining, deep grey morocco spine, upper cover titled in palladium, Cave Paper layered indigo night doublures. Fine. An elegant, complementary binding for a work of pure typography. The Latin text (in Emerson type) is surrounded by its English translation (in Garamond). One of 225 copies designed by Victor Hammer, who recut the large Garamond capitals for the title page. Printed by Jacob Hammer on Kelmscott handmade paper. The first Anvil Press book. A Century for the Century 52. $2,00 the veatchs arts of the book 3. Arion Press. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. Published for the Bicentennial of its Adoption in 1787. San Francisco, In association with the Library of Congress, 987. 6½ × 0½. 63 pages. Two decorative blue initials on red and white ground scattered with gold stars, drawn and illuminated by Thomas Ingmire. Full white vellum titled in blue on spine and both covers, laced with red vellum; in a blue cloth chemise and matching slipcase; red, white, and blue spine label. As new, with the broadside prospectus and sample leaf from the book. One of 500 copies. Printed in hand set Goudy Deepdene type on Twinrocker handmade paper. Introduction by Daniel J. Boorstin. A beautiful edition. $,600 “...most of them were sent to Russia.” 4. Bible. Gospels in Slavic. Silvestre, J[oseph] B[althasar] and B[artholomaus] Kopitar. EVANGELIA SLAVICE quibus ohm in regum francorum oleo sacro inungendorum solemnibus uti solebat ecclesia remensis vulgo texte du sacre. (Engraved title) Paris, 843. 8¾ × ½. Engraved title, printed title, engraved dedication to Czar Nicholas, xix pages of introduction in Latin, foldout plate of Slavonic characters, 32, 32, 62, 62 leaves of facsimile and translation. The two portions of the Gos- pels are presented as double spreads, with Latin translation on the left (on thinner paper) and the Slavic original on the right (on thicker paper). Each portion is written in a different hand in a different Slavic alphabet—the first in the Cyrillic, the second in Glagolitic. The first engraved facsimile bears hand colored initials and ornaments in red and blue. The second contains 9 hand painted illuminated initials with marginal extensions. In a fine period paneled binding of blind embossed pebble- grained morocco by J. Wright, London, leather hinges, all edges gilt and gauffered. Slight wear to extremities, upper joint lightly rubbed, slight separation at one gathering, one double spread darkened by something previously laid in, else fine.A rare fac- simile by the paleographer Silvestre, engraved by Girault, with printed Latin translation by Kopitar, from the manuscript of 1375. Until the 18th century its languages were unknown. Greek, Syriac, Oriental, and Indian were all postulated. In 1554 the manuscript was presented to the Cardinal of Lorraine. “As a mysterious oriental manuscript, it was for years used at the coronations of the French kings, and its Slavic origin was disclosed in France only by Peter catalogue 85 the Great who visited Rheims in 1717.” (Library of Congress Slavic Section Annual Report for 1929) During the French Revolution, the manuscript dis- appeared from view for some 50 years. When it resurfaced, the golden jewel- encrusted binding was missing. Silvestre’s splendid facsimile, commissioned by the Librarian of Rheims and paid for by Czar Nicholas, was created for the use of Slavic scholars. Our copy belonged to two American collectors of important Bibles: George Livermore, of Dana Hill, Cambridge, who in 1859 deposited the book at Harvard (large Harvard bookplate inside front cover), who surrendered the book to Livermore’s executors in 1894; S. Brainard Pratt of Boston (his stamp on flyleaf) who published a catalogue of his collection (A Catalogue of Ancient & Modern editions of the Scriptures,” 1890). Quaritch offered this copy for sale in 1905. The only other non- institutional copy we’ve located (a heavily worn copy) was auctioned to Maggs in 1964. A penciled note on blank leaf states that only 100 copies were printed, and most of them were sent to Russia. Silvestre discusses this manuscript in detail in his Universal Palaeography (1849) pp. 768–779. $4,500 5. Bible. Psalms in Arabic and Latin. LIBER PSALMORUM DAVIDIS REGIS ET PROPHETAE. Ex Arabico Idiomare in Latinium translatus. Rome: Stephanus Paulinus for Typographia Savariana, 64. 6½ × 8½. 6 preliminary leaves, 474, () pages. In the final quarto gathering (Nnn) pages are bound out of order. Arabic and Latin in parallel columns, within double rule border. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine, with 2 small, unreadable shelf labels. Bookplate of H. P. Kraus. Lower cover cockled, lacks ties, a group of page tips are creased, paper defect in one lower margin. But a very fresh, unsophisticated, and pleasing copy. The first Arabic edition of the Psalms, and one of only two books from this press. An orientalist and French ambassador to Constan- tinople, Jacques Savary de Brèves hoped to establish a college of Oriental studies in Paris. He set up this press while ambassador to Rome. Where he commissioned this fine Arabic fount (along with Persian, Syriac, and Turk types) is not known. One hypothesis posits their cutting in Constantinople, with finishing in Paris by Guillaume le Bé. More recently, the types are thought to be based on a calligraphic ms. in the Vatican, and cut in Rome. They were acquired in 1627 by Richelieu (for the propagation of Catholicism in the Levant) and in 1656 by the Imprimerie Royale. $4,000 the veatchs arts of the book 6. Blinn, Carol. SERIOUS PLAY. Decorated Paste Papers by Carol J. Blinn. Easthampton: Warwick Press, 2006. 7 × 9½. 64 pages (stenciled and cal- ligraphic title page, 3 pages, 26 leaves with 22 paste paper specimens). Bound in paste- paper- over boards, exposed spine with Coptic sewing stitch. In orange paper chemise and matching slipcase with spine label. Fine. There is a 31- page introduction about Carol’s apprenticeship (1973) first as a letterpress printer at The Gehenna Press, then as a binder and paste paper maker with Arno Werner. Carol discusses her various processes and techniques for each of the 22 specimens. There is a list of Warwick Press books using her papers, and a list of papers made for other publishers. A delightful book. One of 35 copies. $2,500 7. Bolton, Claire M. THE FIFTEENTH- CENTURY PRINTING PRAC- TICES OF JOHANN ZAINER, ULM. Oxford & London, 206. 6 × 9. xv, 289 pages. Illustrated; indexed. Quarter cloth and boards. Small bump at head of spine, all else fine. $65 8. Cavafy, C. P. THE SPLENDOUR OF A MORNING. Early poems of C. P. Cavafy. Mission: Barbarian Press, 206. 5½ × 0. xiv, 73 pages, with five wood engravings by Peter Lazarov. Thirty- seven poems of C. P. Cavafy are printed in Greek and English. Navy cloth spine and tips, printed blue boards, paper spine label. Fine.