Books

Chromolithograph. 9 x 13,5 cm (3.5 x 5.3 inches). Slightly stained.

A 1748 edition of the first accurate book of Arabic grammar by orientalist Thomas van Erpe includes the first Latin translation of the 9th century Arabic anthology the Hamasah by Abu Tammam.

  A unique manuscript by a Belgian imperial calligrapher François Magnée, commissioned by the Archery Society at the Poeke castle and presented to Prince Leopold Duke of Brabant, future King Leopold II.   Folio (37 x 25 cm), [8 pp.] black, red, green, blue, silver and gold ink on vellum (5 pp. manuscript and 3 pp. blank), bound with a…

  Folding card, 15x15 cm, with illustrated cover and printed empty template (Very Good, minor staining in the inner white margins).  

  An unusual archive in Hungarian language includes dozens of photographs and original typewritten police reports on true crime scenes from Budapest, made between 1947 and 1949, most of them related to murders.  

  A stunning, well-rounded private archive of a French engineer, businessman and bibliophile Léon Sellié, giving a detailed insight on the life of an upper-class expat in the Late Ottoman period. The archive includes over 200 documents with 27 diaries, expanding over almost 29 years and describing over 9000 days in Istanbul, photographs, an unpublished manuscript on antique monuments of…

  A thick manual on the Islamic law by Muhammed Seid Serdarević (1882 -1918), a Müderris (teacher) at the Sultan Ahmed's Madrasa in Zenica, is one of the first such books, written in Arebica. I was written in Zenica in 1917 and published after the author’s death with an epilogue by the editor Džemaluddin Čaušević.  

  Official Note from the Consul Charged ad Interim of the General Consulate of France in Buenos-Aires, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Confederation, reclaiming on the authority of international law, that the French, who notoriously and publicly have established themselves in the republic with the same enjoyments and civil liberties as the Argentine citizens, be not…

An elaborately made manuscript travelogue to Argentina in 1891 by a teenage boy Mariano de Bary, a son of a bank and transportation mogul Heinrich Albert de Bary and a descendant of a prominent Argentinian family Saavedra.   Large 4º, blank, illustrated title page, 130 pp., [1 pp.], manuscript in blue ink, 43 original black and white photographs mounted in…

  A rare Armenian almanac, issued in 1905 in Istanbul by the Armenian Hospital, including folding maps and valuable information on the Armenian minority.   8°, 512 pp. with portraits in text and interleaved 6 folding black and white maps, [20 pp.] advertisements on thin yellow paper, original blue cloth blinding with debossed black decoration and gilt lettering (title with…

This manuscript broadside is a stunning example of artistry, seamlessly blending Armenian calligraphy with its distinctive letters and rich Christian symbolism that is deeply embedded in the nation’s identity. The inclusion of a traditional labyrinth form elevates the piece, serving as a profound tool for meditation and concentration.   Drawing and manuscript in various colours on paper, 62 x 44…