Search Results: Titles starting with M from Bruce McKittrick Rare Books

[Paris]: [René Boyvin or his atelier], 1560. CONTEMPORARY BROWN MOROCCO WITH THE ARMS OF HENRI III AS KING OF FRANCE AND POLAND in a field of lilies, the corners with his crowned cipher braced by foliage, gilt lilies cover the flat spine, evidence of four ties, all edges gilt (Olivier-Hermal-Roton 2491,2 and 2491,8). "AMONG THE BEST-KNOWN ORNAMENT PRINTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE SCHOOL OF FONTAINEBLEAU" (Acton).             Flesh has become artifact. The figure has become a work of art, a vehicle for ornament, the exotic and the mysterious - part ancient Rome, part Arabia, part carnival. Without horizon or background, eyeholes darkened, mouths frozen, parted lips immobile, the profiles disquiet the viewer.             The scale and overabundance make the images difficult to read. Grotesques, animals, shocks of feathers, straps and diadems crowd helmets, bows, blooms, crowns and plaits. Shimmering jewelry falls from head to chest. Cabochons are the size of lion pelts. Pearls are as… Read More

Lyon: S. Gryphe, 1554. CONTEMPORARY WHITE CALF GILT AND PAINTED with double-rule strapwork interlaced with vines and foliage (soiled, some wear and loss of paint); the upper right and lower left outer ribbons painted brown and the outer foliage green; the upper left and lower right outer ribbons left plain; the foliage around the central lozenge painted blue and the two leaves in the middle painted green; the six spine compartments gilt (worn), edges gilt and gauffered with ?tulips.             The competition was fierce and the audience large for this beloved text, which presents the mythology of classical Antiquity in Ovid's famously witty style. Moss records fifty-two printings of the Metamorphoses in France from 1496 to 1560 in folio, quarto, octavo and sextodecimo. Gryphe and his heirs account for thirty-one percent of the total and over sixty percent of the small format editions. Slightly browned, the front free endleaf removed, Broili armorial bookplate. ¶Moss, Ovid in Renaissance… Read More

Wrocław (Breslau): [C. Scharffenberg], 1574. CONTEMPORARY ROSE VELVET over thin wooden boards (the wood of two corners worm-damaged, velvet faded, minor defects, spine sewing cords exposed, stain at the crown), two manuscript-lettered paper labels, edges gilt and gauffered.             First Edition, first state, the fruits of an extended educational tour in Italy and northern Europe by the Polish nobleman, Siegfried Rybisch (1530-84), focused on the tombs and epitaphs of ancient, medieval and contemporary literary celebrities. He recorded his decade of travel (1545-54) in a diary (Wrocław University) and commemorated the outstanding elements in an album of drawings of monuments and inscriptions associated with the burial sites of poets, popes, theologians, lawyers, philosophers and rulers. The volume has one hundred eighty-four epitaphs in all, some concocted.            They are roughly organized into six sections - classical writers, northern reformers and humanists, Italian… Read More

Paris: Ulrich Gering and Berthold Rembolt, 1495. Late 17th- or early 18th-century mottled calf (worn, hinges cracked, slightly wormed, crown repaired), spine and label gilt, edges sprinkled red.             The Moralia brings Christian mysticism, asceticism, dogma and allegory to bear on the story of Job's suffering. Pope Gregory deeply engages Scripture in his massive commentary, which bridged the ancient and medieval worlds and remained a preeminent guide to moral theology through the Enlightenment.             For this edition, THE PRINTERS ADDED TWO NEW INDICES FOR YOUNG SCHOLARS and busy clerics. The first index provides access to all Bible verses referenced or quoted in the text - some fifteen hundred entries. THE SECOND INDEX TREATS THE NATURAL WORLD in three hundred entries - animals, metals, herbs, stars, human body parts, precious gems, rivers, etc. Two copies in U.S. libraries. In good condition (a few pale scattered stains and minor worming, loss of six sorts on the title… Read More