Search Results: Authors starting with L from De Simone Company, Booksellers

Paris: Chez Gregoire Dupuis; De l'Imprimerie de Jean Baptiste Coignard, Imprimeur Ordinaire du Roy, 1719. Large 4to.  265 x 185 mm., [10 ¼ x 7 ½ inches].  xlii, 1-120, 131-140, 131-358, [2] pp; page numbers 121-130 were misprinted as 131-140 and then repeated, signatures correct and text complete.    Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece by Coypel, engraved by Dardieu; title-page vignette designed by Vleughels and engraved by Simoneau; 100 one-third page vignettes, of which 67 are designed and engraved by Claude Gillot; with other vignettes by Coypel, Edelinck, B. Picart engraved by Cochin, Edelinck, P. Picart, Simoneau and Tardieu. Large paper copy with wide margins.  Bound in contemporary sprinkled calf gilt spine; some minor scrapes to binding, but otherwise an excellent copy in contemporary condition. "The eighteenth century perfected a fresh, seductive format for books subsidized by wealthy patrons for wealthy bibliophiles.  These books were not meant to be read but rather to be… Read More

London: Nicholas Kaye, 1955. 8vo.  225 x 155 mm., [8 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches].  226 [2] pp.  Illustrated with a folding map of Naples and 173 heliogravure photo reproductions.   Original cloth , dust jacket; jacket chipped at head and tail of spine and a bit fragile; protected with mylar sleeve.  Dust jacked after a painting by Yves Brayer. First English language edition, originally published in Paris the previous year.  Beautifully illustrated travel guide to Naples, with high quality photographs illustrating the City and the everyday life of the Neapolitan people.   The high-quality heliogravures were printed by Braun & Cie, Mulhouse of Paris and give the book a crispness and clarity unusual in most travel books from the period.  With faults to the dust jacket a  nice copy of a well-illustrated book.   .

(Rome): (Carlo Labruzzi), 1796. Folio. 415 x 302 mm. (16 ¼ x 11 ½ inches). 13 full-page etchings printed in sanguine on laid paper, each plate with a loosely inserted guard sheet (also of laid paper) with 5 dark pencil points marked as guides to the artists. Early 19th-century red leather spine and tips over marbled paper boards. Leather ownership label with the name "Lebzeltern" (Ludwig von Lebzeltern) on the front board. Binding lightly rubbed, very good copy.  Rare series of etchings, by the well-known Italian artist Carlo Labruzzi (1748-1817) created for the Countess Bessbourough, Henrietta Frances Duncannon, the daughter of the noted English book collector the Earl of Spencer. During the years 1792-95 she traveled throughout Italy and must have struck up a friendship with Labruzzi while in Rome in order for this curious series of etchings to be created. The title of the work in English reads, "Figures drawn from five predestined points".  The points indicate where the hands, feet, and head… Read More

1775. 4to. 270 mx 205 mm., (11 x 8 inches). 243 leaves, with some blanks between essays. Text includes numerous equations and hand drawn diagrams in the margins. 19th century vellum backed marbled paper boards, vellum tips, manuscript title on spine. A note in pencil, written in Italian, reads in part, "Purchased in the Compo di Fiori May 10, 1933." Born in Turin, Italy in 1736, Lagrange was locally educated and by the age of 17 had recognized his skills in the natural sciences and applied himself to the study of mathematics. He published his first essay on Newton's binomial theory in 1754 at the age of 18 and in 1755 became a life-long correspondent of Leonhard Euler who at that time was living in Berlin. For the rest of his life Lagrange communicated both in print and through letters with the most important mathematicians working in Europe including Riccati, d'Alembert, Bernoulli and Condorcet, to name a few. In 1756 Lagrange was elected to the Berlin Academy of Science and after years of waiting… Read More

Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1894. Large 8vo.  240 x 170 mm., [9 1/4 x 6 1/2 inches].  xxix, [1], 329 pp.  Illustrated with one hundred illustrations throughout the text.  Bound in original red paper boards, white linen cloth spine, red cloth wrapper; tail of spine with some minor transfer of red from wrapper, wrapper a bit soiled, spine turned dark; frontispiece loose from text block. Tenth printing, originally published in 1888.  Lanciani's book was an immediate success and became one of Houghton and Mifflin's best selling travel books of the season.  His text is a combination of new scholarship, describing the archeological discovers in Rome and a serious travel guide for many of the ancient monuments of the city.  The illustrations include wood engravings, reproductions of art, heliotypes in black and white of city views, and maps.  It is printed on lightly coated paper and is a very substantial book.  With faults a good copy of a standard book.

Mantova: Per l'Eredi di Alberto Pazzoni, Regio-Ducale Stampator, 1781. Large 8vo.  280 x 200 mm., [11 x 8 inches].  74 pp.  Illustrated with a large printer's ornament on the title-page.  Bound in modern stiff, green decorated boards, new endpapers; some minor soiling to margins but otherwise a very nice copy, printed on very good paper with large margins.  The initials  "GM" are embossed on the lower cover, perhaps the initials of the papermaker for the decorative wrappers. Rare first and only edition of Eraclio Landi's study of the wines of Mantua, an ancient city in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy.  Adopting scientific criteria and referring in particular to wine chemistry, Landi carefully describes the various wines of Mantua: its characteristics, its quality, the fermentation process used, as well as the market for the wines.  Included isa description of fourteen different grapes that can be cultivated in this region of Italy.  There is also a section on how to conserve the wines… Read More

New York: Grove Press, 2000. 8vo.  230 x 150 mm., [9 ¼ x 6 inches].  xvi, 427 pp..  Illustrated with 8 color plates.  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket.  Very good copy. First American edition.  My aunt Iris, who at the age of 93 read and reviewed this work, wrote the following:  "Artemisia brought to life by a very exceptional writer, who wrote a portrait of a love/hate respect and devotion, even sweet revenge  -- driven by father and daughters extraordinary talent, using their craft off each other.  Unforgettable."  I also recommend this book for its exploration of the life and work of one of most important 17th century woman artists, who recently had her first solo show in the United States.  The author includes over 90 pages of notes on her subject, which support her story and add to our understanding of Artemisia Gentileschi and the era in which she lived.   (917) .

New York: Greeley & McElrath, Tribune Buildings, 1848. Two volumes. 8vo. 230 x 145 mm., [9 x 6 inches].  608pp;, 568 pp., plus 8 pp. ads.  Illustrated with two lithographic plates and woodcut illustrations throughout the text.  Publisher's embossed cloth, author and title gilt on spine; minor fraying to heads of spines, otherwise a very good set. Third edition, originally published in 1845 and 1846 by Greeley and McElrath.  Dionysius Lardner was Dublin born, Trinity College educated and employed at the University College London as professor of natural philosophy and astronomy.  To escape a scandal and a judgement for adultery, he first moved to Paris and then began a public lecture series in the United States focusing on a variety of scientific subjects.  Over the course of three years (1841-44) he spoke to thousands of Americans and was very well received in cities and towns around the country. Some of the subjects he lecture on and were edited for this book include, The Sun-- Eclipses--… Read More

New York: James Pott & Co., 1907. 8vo.  215 x 155 mm., [8 1/2 x 6 inches].  xii, 323 pp., plus 2 pp. ads.   Illustrated with a frontispiece and 29 half tone photographs.   Publisher's decorated terra cotta cloth; spine sunned and a bit soiled, otherwise a very good copy. First impression of the first edition.  Attractive copy of the author's account of her grand tour of the major cities of Italy, including Milan, Venice, Rome, Florence, Naples and many smaller cities in between.  Somehow she missed Ferrara.  Nicely illustrated with photographic reproductions printed on glossy paper.  This copy with the bookplate of Lydia Jackson Dale and a Christmas inscription to Dale from "E. R. S." on front free endpaper. .

Chicago, Ill., U. S. A.: Thomas Kane & Company, 1892. Oblong 8vo. 195 x 270 mm., [7 ½ x 11 inches]. 43 pp. Illustrated throughout with lithographs, many full-page images of launches and boating equipment. Bound in original green paper wrappers, title on front cover, vignette of a sailing launch on the back cover. Very good copy. Well-illustrated catalogue of launches and boiler engines produced in Racine, Wisconsin by the Thomas Kane & Company, who maintained a salesroom in Chicago. The company won a first prize for their steam boat launches, sail boats and row boats at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. This catalogue issued the previous year illustrates many of the launches and boats that were part of the exposition and competition. Romaine, Guide to American Trade Catalogues, p. 66, listing catalogues for the years 1880, 1885, and 1893. Outing, an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Sport, Travel, and Recreation. New York, Vol. XXIV, 1894, p. lxix. OCLC cites… Read More

New York: The Viking Press, 1932. 8vo.  225 x 150 mm., [9 x 5 3/4 inches].  200 pp.  Illustrated with 20 collotype reproductions.   Original black cloth; stamped in gilt, top edge stained black.  Original cream dust jacket, plain wrappers.  Bookseller's ticket of Paul Elder & Co., San Francesco to rear pastedown.  Tight copy, paper mellowed lightly, Near Fine.  Jacket unclipped (priced $ 3. 75), spine browned, rubbed at edges, lightly soiled along top edge, with tape repoair to veros at head of spine; about Very good. Travel essays contrasting life in ancient Etruscan Italy with contemporary fascism under Mussolini. "The first American issue of Etruscan Places was published by Viking in November 1932 from the Secker sheets."  (Roberts, 157). The collotype plates illustrate scenes and objects which Lawrence describes  -  pictorial survey of Etruscan civilization. .

New York, 1827. Narrow folio. 332 x 208 mm., (13" x 8-1/8"), [5] pp., Printed on heavy paper, the final page addressed in manuscript to Messrs. Newhall & Eveleth, Boston. Old folds, one small hole where originally sealed. Some migration of ink through the paper. Still, about fine. Printed auction form consisting of 10 columns: [Lot] No.; Sides; [Total] Pounds; Avg. [Wgt.]; Weights [Range]; Hide [Source]; Tannery; Value; Purchaser; and Price. The first seven columns have printed data entered, the eighth, Value, has figures neatly supplied in manuscript, and the last two have been left blank. The columns are divided into sections according to the location of the material: lots 1-5 are on the "First Floor, Middle Store," lots 6-24 on the "Second Story, Middle Store," lots 25-72 on the "Second Story, Back Store," and so forth. There is a total of 185 lots. At the end of the printed form (occupying the two blank columns) there is a short manuscript note… Read More

Paris: Place de l'Estrapade, No. 28 (Impr. de Panckoucke), 1831. 4to (280 x 220 mm). 64 leaves, plus 4 large folding specimen broadsides bound at end. 3 preliminary leaves: title, with Leger's monogram, 2-page Avis to printers and booksellers, 2-page price list, the latter bearing the official royal ink stamp (Timbre royal); 61 specimen leaves and 4 large folding plates, printed on rectos only. Double rule borders throughout. Thin but fine wove paper.  Occasional light spotting, foxing along folds of broadsides, tiny hole in 3rd broadside. Stab-stitched in original printed blue wrappers, soiled, tears to back strip, untrimmed. A near fine copy of a well printed specimen book, containing a complete range of type specimens and an extensive display of decorative and illustrative material from the stock of a master Parisian typefounder with ties to the Didot family. This appears to be the only general stock catalogue to have been issued by this typefounder, of whom little is known other than the fact,… Read More

Boston: Printed at the Herald Job Office, 1866. 8vo.  240 x 170 mm., [9 ½ x 6 ¾ inches].  17 pp.  Original printed wrappers, stitched as issued; some discoloration of the wrappers, edges chipped, some minor staining. This sale catalogue includes 349 lots, including an interesting collection of pamphlets on American trials and court room reports; eulogies, lectures, and speeches by notable Americans; election sermons; book sale catalogues; slavery pamphlets, old newspapers; and currency. Leonard & Co. was a venerable, old auction house in Boston that was established in 1842 and continued under different management until 1918.  Its first big book consignment was in 1859 when it catalogued the collection of Edward E. Crowninshield and sold it en-bloc to Henry Stevens of Vermont.  It contained a copy of the Bay Psalm Book purchased from the Prince Library at Old South Church and an Eliot Indian Bible.  This sale was followed by the Hosmer Sale in 1861, the Humphrey Sale , and the sale of the… Read More

Lucca: Giovanni Riccomini, 1767. 8vo. 203 x 135 mm. (8 x 5 1/4 inches). 32 pp. Engraved title-page vignette of a putti and a dolphin; two woodcut decorative initial letters, head- and tail-pieces of putti and designed backgrounds. Original red Italian decorative paper wrappers; remnants of a paper label on lower spine and a small stain to the edge of upper wrapper, light fading to upper cover, otherwise an attractive copy. Only edition of this rare laudatory poem on the joy and responsibility of marriage and the correct conduct of a mother to newborn children. The book is dedicated to Maria Luisa Boccella (Mansi) an old friend of the author and written for her daughter Isabella, who is engaged to marry Girolamo Parensi. In the poem Leornadi speaks about obedience of wife to husband, the tenderness of the man to the women, and that child birth is the expected outcome of the married life. The poem, typical of its type, is remarkable for a long note about motherhood, discusses the use of swaddling,… Read More

Bologna: Per le Stampe di Jacopo Marsigli ai Celestini, 1797. Contemporary blue paper wrappers. Ownership stamp in black ink of Ettienne Della Valle.. 8vo. 205 x 130 mm. (8 x 5 ¼ inches) 60 pp. Rare pamphlet written a year after the French occupation and the establishment of Bologna as the capital of the short-lived Cisalpine Republic, a confederation of northern Italian cities into an independent political unit. The author focuses his attention on the clergy and the aristocracy and poses hypothetical questions about the rights of the people and responsibilities of the ruling class to create reforms that will bolster the standard of living and political power of agricultural and artisan classes. Not listed in NUC; OCLC cites copies in North America at University of Connecticut and University of Toronto only.

Neapoli: Ex Regia Typographia, 1837. Large 4to. 300 x 220 mm., [11 ¾ x 9 inches]. [1], iv, 24 pp. One folding plate of Arabic letter forms. Later 19th century marbled paper wrappers; some minor foxing. Treatise on Arabic writing forms and grammar based on manuscripts in the Royal Library in Naples written by Maurizio Lettieri (1804-1849) a professor of Arabic at the University of Naples. The essay describes fourteen Arabic manuscripts and provides bibliographic and textual information on each, including examples of the script used by the scribes recording the text. The Arabic text is often accompanied by the Latin equivalents, providing access to both the script and the contents of each manuscript. The folding plate shows examples of various manuscript alphabets and numbers, and it includes specimens of type made to represent the scripts. Not cited in ICCU the Italian Union Catalogue. NUC, or OCLC. .

New York: Farrar, Straus, and Young, 1951. 8vo. [xvi], 442 pp.  Publisher's black cloth boards, green cloth spine, label in black and gold on spine.  Dust jacket fragile, chips to head and tail of spine, some tears; secured by mylar wrapper. Second America printing.  Levi's novel, set in Rome and Naples, is based on his own experience after the War trying to reestablish himself as a writer and artist.  Recovering from the disaster that was the fascist government of Mussolini and his black shirts, Levi recounts the attempts to form a society that abandoned the past and rid the country of government of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich.  His story, set in 1946, "when the last Cabinet of 'Men of the Resistence' gave way to the first De Gaspari Government, and the hopes of a radical reform of political life were shelved. . ."  His story resonates with the impact that fascism, the war, and recovery had on the everyday person in Italian society. Carlo Levi (1902-1975), the award winning… Read More

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. 8vo.  125 x 160 mm., [9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches].  6, 351 pp.  Fully illustrated with plates and images in the text.  Cloth, dust jacket. First edition.  "This wonderful chronicle of Florence is worthy of the City and its lucky inhabitants.  Reading it is the next best thing to being there"  Paul Theroux.     Lewis approaches his subject with an eye on both the historical and contemporary characteristics of Florence and the Florentines and creates an interesting mix of past and present.  The book is very nicely produced with good illustrations, a bibliography of sources, and informative descriptions of the illustrations, all of which appears at the end of the book.

Milano: De Agostini for Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 2012. 8vo. 210 x 210 mm., [8 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches].  47 pp.  Illustrated with color reproductions.  Pictorial wrappers. History of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, beginning with its founding in the high Renaissance down to the 20th century.  Well documented overview of the library's collections, the difficulties of maintaining the library during political turmoil, and the founders and philanthropists who made it one of the great libraries in Italy.