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The first edition of the first comprehensive, scientifically accurate geological map of Libya, a grand, bilingual (English - Arabic) separately issued production primarily made to aid the country’s burgeoning oil industry; the result of a collaboration between Louis Conant and Gus Goudarzi, two of America’s most esteemed geologists, fulfilling a joint project of the U.S. State Department and the pro-Western…

[Bulgar Harabeleri hem Burunegi Bulgarları / The Ruins of Bolghar and the Ancient Bulgars]      A rare Tatar publication with an illustrated text on the ruins of the ancient city Bolghar, the capital of Volga Bulgaria from the 8th until 15th century, was printed in Kazan in 1908.                 8°. 44 pp. with black…

An attractive book for children in Azeri language, written with Arabic letters, with a humorous story in verses, was published in Baku in 1899. The author was a prominent educator, author and translator Sultan Mecid Ganizade.    8°. Title page, 41 pp., [4 pp.] blank, original pink wrappers with lettering and illustrations, contemporary brown cloth binding with debossed titles in…

A collection of avantgarde poems with a decorative cover design by Stanisław Ryszard Dobrowolski (1907-1985). With a dedication by the author   8°. 46 pp., [2 pp.] index, original wrappers with illustrated cover, dedication of the author on the first page (wrappers slightly age-toned, otherwise in a good, clean condition).  

The complete first year of one of the first newspapers on law, written under the Western influences and parallelly issued in Ottoman and Arabic languages.   8°. 12 parallel issues in Ottoman (203 pp.) and Arabic languages (199 pp.) (all together 24 units with 402 pp.), bound together. Original cloth boards, brown calf spine with gilt decoration and lettering, original…

This is an early Ottoman publication with the logarithmic tables, published by the Imperial Naval Press in Istanbul in the time of the Tanzimat.   8°. [30 pp.] lithographed text, [2 pp.] blank, 26 numbered book sections, with 8 pp. each (i. e.208 pp.) + 1 p. with tables, 45 pairs of tables (i. e. 90 pp.), 45 pairs of…

The first modern book on geography in Azeri, written by a pioneer of Azeri modern education, Gafur Rashad Alakbar   8°. 117 pp. with black and white illustrations, [1 pp.], later marbled paper wrappers (slightly age-toned, light staining, sporadic old repaired tears in margins, lacking original wrappers, otherwise in a good, clean condition).

[Skiing Manual. (With Particular Emphasis on Skiing at School). Methodological Manual for Teachers, Students and Self-Taught Skiers]   An attractively designed, illustrated skiing manual in Polish language was published in Warsaw. The cover was lithographed in Vilnius.   8°. XVI, 239 pp. with black and white illustrations, [2 pp.], errata on blue paper, inserted original advertisement on blue paper, original…

A fascinating itinerary map of the route of the U.S. Army’s Ninth Infantry Division during their World War II active combat tours, featuring their routes in North Africa, Sicily, England, France (including the D-Day Landings) and Germany; published in Germany only 2 months after the end of the war as a memento for the troops – notably, one of only…

A rare Bosnian pan-Turkic anti-Communist pamphlet was published during WWII by a Muslim intellectual Mustafa Busuladžić, who sided with the Croatian pro-Nazi anti-Communist government. The book was used as an evidence against him at his trial for collaboration only days after the end of WWII.   12°. 70 pp. with a portrait and a map, later 20th century blue cloth…

An unusual pan-Turanian work in German language, representing the contemporary movement in the Ottoman Empire, was written and self-published in Ljubljana by a Slovenian author and orientalist Arthur von Wurzbach, who appears to be overlooked in the historical books, possibly for his monarchist and pro-Ottoman sentiments in his homeland, which would soon become Yugoslavia.   Small 4°, 32 pp. letterpress…

A seemingly unrecorded special ‘emergency’ issue of Max Moisel’s groundbreaking map of Deutsch-Ostafrika (today’s mainland Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), issued in haste by British War Office immediately following the outbreak of World War I, whereupon East Africa became a surprisingly intense conflict theatre; the present example bearing evidence of field use, featuring contemporary manuscript additions.   Photolithographic print, with contemporary…

An extremely rare Nazi report on the state of roads in Germany's former African colonies and the Belgian Congo, made early in World Wat II in preparation for plans for the Third Reich to regain its African empire either by diplomacy or force, being a printed copy of an original typescript labelled as 'Als Manuskript gedruckt' ('Printed as a manuscript'), issued…

The first Ottoman book on the modern geomagnetism and binnacle, including an almost always missing rotating volvelle   Small 4°: 332 pp. with an illustrated title page, charts and one illustrations, 3 double-page illustrations including a colour lithograph, folding chart, a page with mounted volvelle, composed of two parts and a string and instructions on the last page, original errata…

A rare manual for officers is the fifth and the last book, printed in the first Istanbul lithographic press, run by a Frenchmen Henri Cayol on the premises of the Ministry of War for only five years. It was written by the main patron of this new technique, the statesman and admiral Koca Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha.   8°: [6 pp.]…

A rare, unusual separately issued propaganda publication in Croatian language with an extreme anti-Semitic content, was printed in 1939, on the eve of WWII. It is a reprint of a 1906 article by an influential Croatian politician Stjepan Radić (died 1928), who later became a liberal politician and regrated his early writings.   8°: 16 pp., original green wrappers with…

An exceedingly rare illustrated program for the 1925 silent movie Ben Hur with Ramon Novarro was issued for the movie theatre in Konya, Turkey.      Large 4°. 6 pp., [2 pp.] with black and white illustrations, printed on thin paper, unbound, as originally published (leftovers of old mounted and rubber taxation stamp on the cover, tiny holes in the…

An Italian map of the natural harbour of Kismaayo, in the far south of Somalia.     Photozincograph, with navigational markers heightened in yellow and some details added in manuscript in red pen, with pastedown date stamp in lower left corner (Very Good, some wear along old folds), 55.5 x 70.5 cm (22 x 27.5 inches).  

This chart maps the mouth of the Jubba River in southern Somalia, long a vital lifeline for agriculture and trade.  The chart was made from surveys conducted by Commander Giovatto of the Italian Navy in 1908.    Zincograph (Very Good, some light toning and light wear along old folds), 53 x 61 cm (21 x 24 inches).  

This is the extremely rare first edition of the Italian Navy’s sea chart of stretch of the Somali coast around El Ataleh, some ways up from Mogadishu.          Zincograph (Good, but with noticeable wear along old folds with some toning in upper area), 63 x 59 cm (25 x 23 inches).  

This is the first sea chart of the harbour of Massawa predicated upon proper scientific surveys, as well as one of the only detailed early maps of the city of Massawa as remodeled by the new Italian colonial regime.   Zincograph, with some navigation markers heightened in yellow, some contemporary manuscript navigational additions in pencil (Good, but with noticeable wear…

[2nd Congress of the Antifascist Council of the Yugoslav Liberation]   A rare Croatian WWII underground partisan pamphlet describes the 2nd  Congress of the Antifascist Council of the Yugoslav Liberation (AVNOJ), the most important Partisan event during the war, where Tito was proclaimed Marshall. The date was later celebrated as the Day of the Republic.   8°, 72 pp., original…

A rare edition of Samkhya Darsana, a text related to the Yoga school of Hinduism, was published by the Sanskrit College of Calcutta.             8°. 246 pp., original wrappers with lettering (slightly age-toned and stained, tiny chips and tears in margins, but overall inside in a good clean condition, later stripe on the spine).  

A charming complete series of 12 pamphlets in Ottoman Language with biographies of contemporary American silent movie actors combined with a presentation of one Russian and two Turkish silent movie stars offers a valuable insight in the modern society of the new Republic of Turkey and its perception of the popular culture of the West.   12 issues (complete). 12°.…