Continental
Contact Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi, Jonathan Harrison, Charlotte Miller or Sally Deegan
Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.
We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.
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[LEXICON.] [ALENIUS, Arnoldus, i.e. Arnout van EYNDHOUTS.]
Lexicon Graecolatinum post omnes hactenus editiones maxima iam...
Venice, Alessandro Brucioli and brothers [i.e. Antonio and Francesco Brucioli], 1546.
First edition of the Lexicon edited by the Dutch humanist and poet Arnout van Eyndhouts, or Arnoud de Lens, known as Arnoldus Alenius. Alenius’s formation took place in Paris, then Ferrara and Bologna. His proficiency as a Greek scholar earned him the post of librarian to the Spanish ambassador...
£2000
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LIPPOMANO, Luigi.
Espositioni volgare del reveren. M. Luigi Lippomano vescovo di Modone, et coadiutore di Bergamo, sopra il...
Venice, Girolamo Scoto, 1541.
First edition of this treatise on the Credo, on the Pater Noster, and on Charity by Luigi Lippomano (1496–1559), dedicated to Pope Paul III and to ‘the venerable converted sisters’ of Rome and Bergamo.
£450
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[LITURGY.] Girolamo GIOVANNINI, editor.
Officium hebdomadae sanctae, juxta formam missalis & breviarii romani, sub Urbano...
Venice, ‘ex typographia Balleoniana’, 1742.
Very rare small-format edition of the Offices for Holy Week, with a woodcut Man of Sorrows.
£275
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LIVY.
Libri omnes, quotquot ad nostrum aetatem pervenerunt: una cum doctissimorum virorum in eos lucubrationibus, post omnes aliorum...
Frankfurt, [Georg Rab for] Johann and Sigismund Feyerabendt, 1578.
An elegantly illustrated and scholarly edition of Livy, with extensive annotations. The text of Livy is supplemented with the epitome of Florus, located at the start of each relevant book and in the gaps left by the missing books, and a comprehensive index of events at the end, which has been...
£1750
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LIVY; [Pedro DE LA VEGA, translator].
Todas las decadas de Tito Livio paduano, que hasta al presente se hallaron y fueron...
[(Colophon:) Cologne [i.e. Antwerp?], Arnold Birckmann], 1553.
A handsome copy of Livy’s History in Spanish, containing the surviving books as well as Florus’s Epitome, in a contemporary Augsburg binding produced by a bindery in the service of the Fugger family.
£3500
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LIVY, Titus.
T. Livii Patauini […] ex XIIII Decadibus Historiae Romanae ab Urbe condita, Decades, prima, tertia, quarta,...
Paris, [Michel Vascosan for] Oudin Petit, 1543 [– Michel Vascosan for himself and Oudin Petit, 1542].
A much-praised edition of Livy’s History, reprinting Vascosan’s 1535 edition and including the philological corpus on Livy by the most established humanists of the time: Rhenanus, Gelenius, Grynaeus, Glareanus, Badius Ascensius, Valla, and Sabellico.
£3800
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LUCAN.
Pharsalia cum annotationibus in margine adiectis, quae brevis commentarii vice esse possint.
Antwerp, Michael Hillenius, 1528.
An uncommon edition of Lucan’s poem on the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey, with extensive Breton provenance and contemporary annotations, in a contemporary binding.
£2500
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LUCIAN of Samosata.
Opera graece et latine ad editionem Tiberii Hemsterhusii et Ioannis Frederici Reitzii accurate expressa cum...
Zweibrücken, Typographia Societatis, 1789–1793.
Renouard’s copy of the Bipontine Lucian, the finest instantiation of the Hemsterhuys-Reitz edition, ‘the most accurate and complete edition of Lucian that has ever been published’ (Dibdin), made more accurate and extensive through reference to Parisian manuscripts which had never been published...
£8000
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LUCRETIUS.
Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri VI. Ad optimorum exemplarium veritatem exacti. Quae praeterea in hac...
Padua, Giuseppe Comino [for Volpi], 2 January 1721.
First Volpi–Comino edition of Lucretius’s famous materialist and Epicurean poem, the most notable Italian edition of the eighteenth century. The present work is the product of the long-running and fruitful collaboration between the printer Giuseppe Comino and the scholars Giovanni Antonio...
£450
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LUDOPHUS of Saxony.
In Psal. David, diligentiss. Simul, & doctissima Enarratio ....Ad cuius ornamentum & collocupletatione[m]...
[Lyons,] A. Vincent, [1542].
Uncommon and significant edition of one of the most important fourteenth-century commentaries on the Psalms, hailed as excellent for its method and clarity and first put through the press in 1491.
£2000
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LUIGINI, Francesco.
In librum Q. Horatii Flacci de arte poetica commentarius.
Venice, [(colophon:) sons of] Aldus, 1554.
First and only edition of Luigini’s commentary on Horace’s Art of Poetry, with a preface praising Paolo Manuzio.
£850
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MABLY, Gabriel Bonnot, Abbé de.
Observations on the Romans. Written originally in French …
London: Printed for R. Griffiths … 1751.
First English edition of this Roman history (first published in the same year in Geneva as Observations sur les Romains). Mably studies episodes from the pre-imperial era (the seven kings, Gracchi and Punic wars), before skimming the vast majority of imperial dynastic rule to finish with a chapter...
£875
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MACROBIUS, Ambrosius Theodosius.
Somnium Scipionis ex Ciceronis libro De republica excerptum; Macrobii … primi diei Saturnaliorum...
Venice, Filippo Pinzi, 29 October 1500.
Sixth and last incunable edition of Macrobius, illustrated with a world map, with extensive early annotations.
£9500
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MAGGI, Lorenzo.
I sacri hinni, che si leggono in tutto l’anno nella santa chiesa Catholica, tradotti, et commentati in lingua...
Venice, Francesco Rampazetto, 1567.
Very rare first edition of this collection of hymns by the Milanese archpriest of Riva San Vitale, Lorenzo Maggi, dedicated to Pope Pius V and intended for members of the clergy with limited Latin.
£500
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MAGNON, Jean.
Les heures du Chrestien, divisées en trois journées; qui sont la journée de la penitence, la journée de la...
Paris, se vendent chez l’autheur … et chez Sebastien Martin, 1654.
First edition of this handsomely illustrated collection of prayers and devotions in verse and prose by the French playwright and poet Jean Magnon (1620–1662). The number of plates in individual copies varies, this copy containing at least two more than those described on OCLC.
£650
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MANCINI, Celso.
Il padrino Christiano … per formare i cavallieri di Christo nel duello della morte. Diviso in tre parti …
Ferrara, Vittorio Baldini, 1592.
Rare first edition of a meditational work on this world and the next by Celso Mancini (1542–1612), canon regular of the Lateran, philosopher, and bishop of Alessano.
£950
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MÄNDL, Kaspar.
Christliche Sitten-Lehr und heylsame Anmuthungen gezogen auß Betrachtung deß bitteren Leyden und Sterbens unsers...
Augsburg, Matthias Wolff, 1737.
A superb example of Rococo decorative binding, exploiting all available materials – silks, metals, beads, papers, gilding, and leather – to extraordinary (if perhaps excessive) effect.
£6750
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[MAPS.]
‘Carte du Vicariat Apost. de Péking & Tche-ly Nord’.
[China], 1896.
Two handsome maps providing a snapshot of the region around modern Beijing and the Bohai Sea encompassed within the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Chi-Li and the Vicariate Apostolic of Southwestern Chi-Li in 1896, showing towns, missionary residences, roads, railways, rivers and lakes, and part...
£1800
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[MARABOTTA, Cattaneo.]
Vita della serafica S. Caterina da Genova.
Genoa, Tipografia Frugoni, 1832.
Rare first edition thus, an attractive nineteenth-century reprint of Marabotta’s biography of Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510), first published in 1737, the date of her canonisation. Catherine was known for her writings on mysticism and for her work with the poor and sick, notably during...
£185
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MARKISH, Peretz Davidovich.
Rubezh. Izbrannye stikhi [Threshold. Selected poems]. Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1933.
[Selected poems]. Moscow, Goslitizdat, 1933.
First edition in Russian of the first book by the Soviet Yiddish poet and novelist Peretz Markish (1895-1952), a collection of poems, Shveln (Threshold, Kiev, 1919) which established his reputation as one of the most important Yiddish poets of his time.
£1800