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Tag Archives: Amsterdam

Banned! — Considerations sur les causes de la Grandeur des Romains et de Leur Decadence

27 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Amsterdam, Baron de Montesquieu, British, calf binding, Charles I, Charles-Louis de Secondant, Edward Gibbons, England, engraved title page, gilt-tooled, headpiece, initials, Jacques Desbordes, James II, Sir Henry Edward Bunbury, soldier


Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur des…
Charles-Louis de Secondant, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
Amsterdam: Jacques Desbordes, 1734
First edition, first issue
DG210 M774 1734

Until the publication of this book Montesquieu had been recognized for his wit, but this book quickly drew attention to him as a major writer and philosopher. The work, first published anonymously, served as an inspiration to Edward Gibbons’ The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

This first issue contains a number of phrases and notes which were considered dangerous and were suppressed in the second issue, including a footnote on p. 130 regarding Charles I and James II of England, stating that if their religion had permitted them from taking their own lives, then the former would have avoided une tell mort and the latter une telle vie.

Engraved title page printed in black and red. Engraved headpiece and initial letter. Contemporary calf with gilt-tooled spine with crest of Sir Henry Edward Bunbury at the crown. Sir Henry Edward Bunbury, Seventh Baronet (1778-1860) was a British soldier, historian and author.

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Banned! — Letters Concerning the English Nation

26 Wednesday Sep 2018

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Alexander Pope, Amsterdam, Bastille, British, Drake Stillman, England, English, Enlightenment, France, Francis Bacon, French, French Parliament, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Italian, John Locke, John Lockman, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, letters, London, Pennsylvania, Quakers, rare books, Roman Catholic Church, tail pieces, University of Toronto, vignettes, Voltaire, William Bowyer, William Penn, William Shakespeare


“The great Freedom with which Mr. de Voltaire delivers himself in his various Observations, cannot give him any Apprehensions of their being less favourably receiv’d upon that Account, by a judicious People who abhor flattery. The English are pleas’d to have their Faults pointed out to them, because this shews at the same Time, that the Writer is able to distinguish their merit.”

Letters Concerning the English Nation…
Voltaire (1694-1778)
London: Printed for C. Davis…and A. Lyon…, 1733
First edition
PQ2086 L4 E5 1733

Voltaire (nee François-Marie Arouet) fled to England after arguing with powerful French political figures. During his exile, from 1726 to 1728, he learned English, reading the works of William Shakespeare, John Milton, Isaac Newton, and Francis Bacon; and met other British authors such as Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. The British embraced Voltaire as a victim of France’s political discrimination.

In Letters, Voltaire, with the works of John Locke and Enlightenment authors as his basis, wrote a slur against the French government and the French Roman Catholic Church, calling for political and religious reform. Letters was translated from French into English by John Lockman from a manuscript prepared by Voltaire.

Voltaire wrote about Isaac Newton and his theories in four of the letters. He told the story of the falling apple as the impetus for Newton’s theorem of the law of gravity, the first time this anecdote was told in print.


“…as he was walking one Day in his Garden, and saw some Fruits fall from a Tree, he fell into a profound Meditation on that Gravity, the Cause of which has so long been sought, but in vain, by all the Philosophers, whilst the Vulgar think there is nothing mysterious in it. He said to himself, that from what height soever, in our Hemisphre, those Bodies might descend…Why may not this Power which causes heavy Bodies to descend, and is the same without any sensible Diminution at the remostest Distance from the Center of the Earth, or on the Summits of the highest Mountains; Why, said Sir Isaac, may not this power extend as high as the Moon?”

Voltaire also wrote about William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers.


About this time arose the illustrious William Pen, who establish’d the power of the Quakers in America, and would have made them appear venerable in the eyes of the Europeans, were it possible for mankind to respect virtue, when reveal’d in a ridiculous light…Pen set sail for his new dominions with two ships freighted with Quakers, who follow’d his fortune. The country was then call’d Pensilvania from William Pen, who there founded Philadelphia, now the most flourishing city in that country.”

Letters was published in French in Amsterdam in 1734. It was immediately condemned by the French Parliament. Copies that made it into France were confiscated and burned. A warrant was issued for Voltaire’s arrest. The printer was imprisoned in the Bastille. At the same time, it was a bestseller in England, going through several more editions during the eighteenth century.

It is likely that this English edition was printed by William Bowyer (1699-1777), as the ornaments (the title vignette and tail-pieces) are those used in other of his imprints.

Rare Books copy has the bookplate of Drake Stillman (1910-1993), an emeritus professor of the history of science at the University of Toronto. He published many translations of the works of Galileo and other sixteenth century Italian scientists.

Recommended reading:
Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978
QB36 G2 D69, L1

Telescopes, Tides, and Tactics: A Galilean Dialogue about The Starry Messenger and Systems of the World
Stillman Drake
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983
QB41 G178 D7 1983, L1

Galileo: Pioneer Scientist
Stillman Drake
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990
QB36 G23 D67 1990, L1

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The Sun, The Moon, The Stars – One Thousand Years of Cosmological Gazing!

18 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by Jonathan Bingham in Events

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1661, Amsterdam, Andreas Cellarius, astronomy, Copernicus, Eclipse, Einstein, Galileo, Harmonia Macrocosmica, Jansson, Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe

The sun, the moon, the stars!

The Rare Books Department invites you to a hands-on display of more than one thousand years of cosmological gazing. From Ptolemy to Galileo to Einstein, hold the books that brought the heavens down to earth.

Rare Books Classroom

J. Willard Marriott Library, Level 4

Monday, August 21

10 am to 1 pm

Image featured on poster from:

Harmonia Macrocosmica
Andreas Cellarius
Amsterdam: Jansson, 1661
Second edition
QB41 C39

See you at the eclipse!

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Book of the week – Tractatus theologico-politicus

03 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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Amsterdam, Benedictus de Spinoza, Bible, biblical criticism, English, Europe, Leviathan, metaphysics, Moses Maimonides, Netherlands, philosophy, political philosophy, Synod of Dordrecht, Thomas Hobbes


TRACTATUS THEOLOGICO-POLITICUS CONTINENS…
Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)
Hamburgi [i.e. Amsterdam]: Apud Henricum Kunrath [i.el. Jan Rieuwertsz], MDCLLXX (1670)
First edition, first issue
BS3985 A3 1670

Printed without authorship attribution, a false publisher and imprint were given in order to maintain anonymity and protect the author and printer from political retribution. In 1673, the book was publicly condemned by the Synod of Dordrecht and officially banned the following year. This is one of the few books banned in the Netherlands during the early modern period. In spite of this, it could be found and bought throughout Europe fairly easily. In this Tractatus Spinoza combined biblical criticism with political philosophy. His metaphysics was heavily influenced by Moses Maimonides and English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan (1651). From its first page, the book sparked controversy. Spinoza expressed his skepticism of the authenticity and historicity of the Bible, pointing out its inconsistencies.

alluNeedSingleLine

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Book of the week – Halakhot yesode ha-Torah

13 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Amsterdam, Calvinist, Christian, Conrad Vorst, Council of Trent, Dutch, Giustiniani, Hebrew, Jewish, Johann Reuchlin, Latin, Menasseh ben Israel, metaphysics, Moses Maimonides, Spinoza, theology, Venetian, Venice, Vorst, Willem Vorstius


HALAKHOT YESODE HA-TORAH
Moses Maimonides (1135-1204)
Amstelodami: Apud Guiliel and Iohannem Blaev, 1638
BM497.7 M3 1638

Editor Willem Vorstius, or Vorst, was the son of Dutch Calvinist theologian Conrad Vorst, and a significant Hebraist. Vorstius was a friend of Menasseh Ben Israel. As a Christian, Vorstius was impressed by Maimonides, although he could not accept all of his ideas. Vorstius used Johann Reuchlin’s De Arte Cabbalistica (1517) as a basis for some of his commentary here. The text of Maimonides is Book I of Mishne Torah, first printed in the fifteenth century, and often reprinted. Part 2 of this edition is the Latin translation of Ro’sh Emunah, and contains detailed notes on two chapters only (XIII, and XIV, where some Hebrew is quoted). In his preface Vorstius wrote that the most recent edition of the text printed since the Council of Trent omitted certain passages in chapters XII and XIV, supplied, he claimed, from a Venetian edition (possibly the Giustiniani edition of 1547). The Maimonides text is his introduction to his magnum opus, Mishne Thorah, a systematization of Jewish theological thought. The work heavily influenced Spinoza’s metaphysics. In Hebrew and in Latin.

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Rare Books goes to France!

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by rarebooks in Publication

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Alain-René Le Sage, Amsterdam, Centre National du Costume de Scene, France, L'Opera Comique et ses Tresors, l'opéra comique…, Le théâtre de la foire; ou, Rare Books Division, Zacharie Chatelain

The Rare Books Division is pleased to announce its participation in

L'Opera

currently at the Centre National du Costume de Scene through May 25, 2015.

The exhibition catalog

L'OperaCatalog

includes several images taken from our copy of

Le théâtre de la foire; ou, l’opéra comique… by Alain-René Le Sage (1668-1774), À Amsterdam, Zacharie Chatelain, 1722

CentreNational

CNCS
Quartier Villars
Route de Montilly
03000 Moulins

Tel. 04 70 20 76 20 Fax 04 70 34 23 04 – See more at: http://www.cncs.fr/#sthash.8oSViVpy.dpuf

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A Donation Makes Poly Poly’s

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by rarebooks in Donations

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

agriculture, alphabet, Amsterdam, anatomy, Antonio Blado, Antwerp, architecture, astrology, astronomy, Barbara Chavira, Basel, Bible, Bonaventura Elzevir, bookbinders, booksellers, celibacy, censored, Christianity, Christopher Plantin, commerce, creation, Daniel Elzevir, Elizabeth Isengrin, England, English, engraved, Ethiopian Church, Europe, expurgated, fable, festivals, French, frontispiece, German, God, Greek, Hebrew, heresy, hunting, Index of Forbidden Books, indulgences, initials, Italian, italic, Judaism, King Arthur, Latin, law, Leonhart Fuchs, libraries, Louis Elzevir, Lucovico Arrighi, Lyons, magic, Martin Luther, mathematics, medicine, Michael Isengrin, minerology, monks, music, navigation, paganism, painting, pharmacology, physics, Polydore Vergil, Pope Gregory XIII, priest, printer, printing, Protestant, Rare Books Division, Reformation, religion, Roman, Roman Catholic Church, Rome, Salt Lake City Public Library, Shakespeare, Spanish, sports, theater, Thomas Guarin, Tournai, trade, typography, Utrecht, vellum, vignettes, weaponry, winemaking, writing

The Salt Lake City Public Library donated a sixteenth century book to the Rare Books Division, thanks to the well-trained eye of City Library staffer Barbara Chavira. Barbara worked part-time in the Rare Books Division for many years. Her passion for the art of books, in all forms and over the centuries, brought us this important and welcome addition to the rare book collections. Thank you, Barbara ! Thank you, City Library !

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLYDORI VIRGILII VRBINATIS DE RERVM INVENTORIBVS…
Romae, apud haeredes antonij, Bladij, Impressores Camerales: Anno. M.D. LXXVI (1576)

Polydore Vergil (ca. 1470-1555), an Italian priest, spent much of his life in England. He is recognized for his history of England, a work that Shakespeare is known to have used as one of his sources. Vergil used critical analysis in his narration of historical events. His thesis that King Arthur was little more than fable, for instance, shocked contemporary readers.

It is his second published work, however, for which he was best known in his time. First printed in 1499, De rerum inventoribus (On Discovery), was a work unlike anything that had been published before. An inventory of historical “firsts,” it combined a wide array of subjects in an attempt to determine which individual or culture first invented things such as the alphabet, astronomy, magic, printing, libraries, hunting, festivals, writing, painting, weaponry and religion. Vergil culled much of his work from a wide range of ancient and contemporary writers. He focused on the genius of man in the origin or invention of all things – heretical thinking at the time.

In Book I he investigated the creation of the world, the origin of religion, the origin of the concepts of “god” and the word “God.” He suggested that much of Christianity had been adapted from Judaism or Roman paganism. Books II and III were studies of a wide-range of topics, mostly concerning the practical and mechanical arts including anatomy, astrology, law, medicine, commerce, mathematics, mineralogy, music, pharmacology, physics, trade, agriculture, architecture, sports, theater, navigation, and winemaking. The work was translated into French in 1521, German in 1537, English in 1546, and Spanish in 1551.

In 1521, more than two decades after he wrote the first three books, and at the dawn of Martin Luther’s protestant reformation, Vergil added five more books concentrating on Christianity. Vergil reworked his discussion of Christianity in deference to the Roman Catholic Church, which objected to Vergil’s reference to religion as a matter of scientific investigation. In spite of this concession, Vergil anticipated the scientific approach to religion that would become the norm a century later. The intended salve to the church failed when Vergil criticized monks, priestly celibacy, and indulgences. In 1564 the work was declared heretical and all editions were added to the Index of Forbidden Books. However, the work was so popular that two censored editions were printed after the ban.

This 1576 expurgated edition was sanctioned by Pope Gregory XIII in its front matter.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-a2

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-CaGlorius

It is significant that this edition was printed by the heirs of Antonio Blado’s shop.

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-titlepage

PA8585-V4-D4-1576-regestvm

Blado worked in Rome from 1515 to 1567 as a printer in the service of the papacy. He was well-known for his scholarly works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; and a 1549 document in Ethiopic type for the Ethiopian Church. Blado is also known for his use of an early italic type created by Ludovico Arrighi. The Rare Books Division holds five books printed by Antonio Blado.

This 1576 edition of Vergil joins an edition from 1570 and another from 1671, already in the rare book collections.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-titlepagePA8585-V4-D4-1570-colophon

POLYDORI VERGILII VRBINATIS, DE RERUM INVENTORIBUS…
Polydore Vergil (1470? – 1555)
Basilea: 1570

Printer Thomas Guarin (1529-1592) was born in Tournai. He worked in Lyons as a bookseller, but by 1557 was in Basel, where he married Elizabeth Isengrin, the daughter of a printer. Guarin took over his father-in-law’s small press at Michael Isengrin’s death. Michael Isengrin had printed one of the many editions of De rerum inventoribus to be published in Vergil’s lifetime. Each of these editions contained significant variations. Isengrin printed Leonhart Fuchs’s sumptuous De Historia stirpivm. Along with the reprint of classical works, Guarin issued several editions of the Bible, published in both Latin and German, and one in Spanish. His printer’s device was a palm tree.

PA8585-V4-D4-1570-printersdevice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PA8585-V4-D4-1671-frontispiece

POLYDORI VERGILII URBINATIS, DE INVENTORIBUS RERUM…
Polydore Vergil (1470?-1555)
Amstelodami: apud Danielem Elzebirius, 1671

Daniel Elzevir came from a distinguished family of booksellers, bookbinders, printers and publishers. Louis Elzevir (1546-1617), a Protestant émigré, began the business in Antwerp in about 1565, after he left a job with Christopher Plantin’s print shop. The Elzevir enterprise became one of Europe’s largest printing houses. Louis’s sons expanded the business with branches in The Hague, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. The Amsterdam branch was established in 1638 by Louis III. His partner was Daniel Elzevir, son of Bonaventura Elzevir, son of Louis. Daniel continued the family reputation for fine typography and design work. This edition of De Rerum inventoribus also contains another of Vergil’s works, Prodigiis, written in 1526 but not printed until 1531. The engraved frontispiece for this edition includes the invention of printing as one of its main themes. Numerous carved initials and vignettes. Bound in contemporary vellum.

Shakespeare is coming! The First Folio will arrive at the City Library in October.

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