Continental

Contact Alex Day, Andrea Mazzocchi, Jonathan Harrison, Charlotte Miller or Sally Deegan

Our Continental department specialises in incunabula, Greek and Latin classics, early vernacular imprints, and notable texts from the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the early modern era, with a specific section devoted to medieval manuscripts, fragments, and illuminations.

We regularly issue lists and catalogues, offering a wide variety of literary, historical, and philosophical books printed in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, the Low Countries, Eastern Europe, and Russia.  Woodcuts, early engravings, notable bindings, notable marginalia, rare manuscript or printed survivals, and books with a remarkable provenance are among our keenest interests and feature regularly in our stock.

 
  1. KARG, Stanislaus, Celso EISENMAN, and Eccard HOCHENBAUM.

    Fur theologicè examinatus, & in judicio sacramentali ad restitutionem...

    Munich, Johann Lucas Straub, [1712].

    Only edition, rare, of this dissertation on the theological and legal aspects of theft and restitution, presented to the distinguished canon lawyer, and author of the monumental Manuale theologico-canonico-legale practicum, Stanislaus Karg.

    £275

  2. KELLER, Martialis.

    Neueröffnete Himmels-Schule, in welcher aus zwölf, als so vielen Theilen vorgesetzten Lehrpunkten verschiedene...

    Augsburg, Matthäus Riegers, 1793.

    Rare later edition of this educational and devotional work by the Bavarian Benedictine Martialis Keller, containing prayers, exercises, and points of doctrine, and illustrated with attractive engravings, this copy in a contemporary local binding.

    £500

  3. KERKHERDERE, Jan Gerard.

    De situ Paradisi Terrestris ... Praecedit... conatus novus de Cepha reprehenso ex Galatarum secundo capite.

    Leuven, Martin van Overbeke, 1729.

    First edition. Kerkherdere addresses the question of the location of the Garden of Eden, the earthly Paradise, accompanying his conjecture with a map engraved by P.E. Boultats of Antwerp; the perusal of various sources, geographical studies and toponymic considerations lead the author, an Imperial...

    £550

  4. KLEINKNECHT, Conrad Daniel.

    Des himmlischen Salomons erquickliches Liebes-Mahl, oder heilige Vorbereitung zum Tische des Herrn,...

    Ulm, ‘im Verlag der Stettinschen und Wohlerschen Buchhandlung’, 1793.

    Two very rare Protestant prayerbooks printed in Ulm, both with striking engraved illustrations, bound in contemporary patterned shagreen.

    £850

  5. LACTANTIUS.

    Opera.

    [Venice,] Vindelinus de Spira, 1472.

    Magnificent incunable edition of the works of Lactantius, a fine product of the first Venetian press, established in 1469 by Johannes de Spira and continued by his brother Vindelinus from 1470 until 1473. This was the fifth impression of the works of Lactantius, the hugely successful North African...

    £25000

  6. LACTANTIUS, Lucius Caecilius.

    [Opera:] Divinaru[m] institutionu[m] lib. VII. De ira dei liber I. De opificio dei liber I. Epitome...

    Lyons, Jean de Tournes & Guillaume Gazeau, 1561.

    Uncommon edition of the works of Lactantius, the ‘Christian Cicero’, edited by the humanist Benedictine Onorato Fascitelli (1502–1564), comprising his Divine Institutes, On the Wrath of God, On the Works of God, the poem The Phoenix etc. ‘The Carmen de resurrectione...

    £350

  7. LALEMANT, [Pierre].

    Les saints desirs de la mort, ou recüeil de quelques pensées des peres de l’Eglise, pour montrer comment...

    Paris, Josse, 1710.

    A very rare later edition, in a contemporary binding of onlaid morocco, of Lalement’s French paraphrases of the Church Fathers’ thoughts on death.

    £850

  8. LANDSBERG, Johannes Justus.

    Iohannis Iusti Lanspergii Bavari Carthusiani omnium epistolarum ac evangeliorum dominicalium totius...

    Cologne, Melchior von Neuss, 1548.

    Later edition (first 1539) of paraphrases, exegeses, and sermons by the Carthusian ascetic and mystic Johannes Landsberg (c. 1490–1539).

    £950

  9. LA SERRE, Jean-Puget de.

    Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt...

    Regensburg, Johann Conrad Peetz und Bader, 1738.

    First edition in German of Tombeau des délices du monde, by the French dramatist and historian Jean-Puget de la Serre (1594–1665).

    £375

  10. LE GROS, Nicolas.

    Meditations sur les epistres Catholiques de S. Jacques, S. Pierre, et St. Jean. Avec le texte Latin et François...

    Paris, chez Savoye, 1754.

    First edition of this extensive work of meditations by the Jansenist Nicolas Le Gros, presented in 1772 by the founder of the first free school for deaf children to Françoise Arnaud, a pupil at the school.

    £1250

  11. LELAND, John.

    The Itinerary of John Leland, in or about the Years 1535-1543. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith, with a Foreword by Thomas...

    London, Centaur Press Ltd, 1964.

    The authoritative edition of Leland’s Itinerary, a monument of English bibliography and antiquarian research. The Itinerary comprises the notes of the antiquary John Leland (c. 1503–1552) on his journeys through England and Wales during the dissolution of the monasteries. According...

    £50

  12. LEO I, Pope. 

    Opera D. Leonis magni, romani pontificis, eius nominis primi.  Per canonicos regulares sancti Martini oppidi et...

    Antwerp, Philippus Nutius, 1583. 

    An attractive sammelband collecting the sermons and correspondence of Pope Leo I and a very rare work on the Mass by the Italian jurist Michele Timoteo (d. 1614), from the celebrated library of Buxheim Charterhouse. 

    £750

  13. LEVEY, Michael.

    The later Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen … second edition.

    Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.

    Revised second edition of Levey’s catalogue of the later Italian paintings in the Royal Collection, from Carracci to Zuccarelli and including the largest group of Canalettos in the world, a specially bound duplicate of Elizabeth II’s presentation copy.

    £475

  14. [LEXICON.] [ALENIUS, Arnoldus, i.e. Arnout van EYNDHOUTS.]

    Lexicon Graecolatinum post omnes hactenus editiones maxima iam...

    Venice, Alessandro Brucioli and brothers [i.e. Antonio and Francesco Brucioli], 1546.

    First edition of the Lexicon edited by the Dutch humanist and poet Arnout van Eyndhouts, or Arnoud de Lens, known as Arnoldus Alenius. Alenius’s formation took place in Paris, then Ferrara and Bologna. His proficiency as a Greek scholar earned him the post of librarian to the Spanish ambassador...

    £2000

  15. LIPPOMANO, Luigi. 

    Espositioni volgare del reveren. M. Luigi Lippomano vescovo di Modone, et coadiutore di Bergamo, sopra il...

    Venice, Girolamo Scoto, 1541.

    First edition of this treatise on the Credo, on the Pater Noster, and on Charity by Luigi Lippomano (1496–1559), dedicated to Pope Paul III and to ‘the venerable converted sisters’ of Rome and Bergamo. 

    £450

  16. LIPSIUS, Justus.

    De amphitheatro liber. In quo forma ipsa loci expressa, et ratio spectandi. Cum aeneis figuris.

    Antwerp [i.e. Leiden], Christophe Plantin, 1585.

    Two works by the great Flemish humanist and philologist Justus Lipsius (1547–1606), on amphitheatres and on Latin pronunciation.

    £950

  17. LIVY; [Pedro DE LA VEGA, translator].

    Todas las decadas de Tito Livio paduano, que hasta al presente se hallaron y fueron...

    [(Colophon:) Cologne [i.e. Antwerp?], Arnold Birckmann], 1553.

    A handsome copy of Livy’s History in Spanish, containing the surviving books as well as Florus’s Epitome, in a contemporary Augsburg binding produced by a bindery in the service of the Fugger family.

    £3500

  18. LIVY, Titus. 

    T. Livii Patauini […] ex XIIII Decadibus Historiae Romanae ab Urbe condita, Decades, prima, tertia, quarta,...

    Paris, [Michel Vascosan for] Oudin Petit, 1543 [– Michel Vascosan for himself and Oudin Petit, 1542]. 

    A much-praised edition of Livy’s History, reprinting Vascosan’s 1535 edition and including the philological corpus on Livy by the most established humanists of the time: Rhenanus, Gelenius, Grynaeus, Glareanus, Badius Ascensius, Valla, and Sabellico. 

    £3800

  19. LUCIAN of Samosata.

    Opera graece et latine ad editionem Tiberii Hemsterhusii et Ioannis Frederici Reitzii accurate expressa cum...

    Zweibrücken, Typographia Societatis, 1789–1793.

    Renouard’s copy of the Bipontine Lucian, the finest instantiation of the Hemsterhuys-Reitz edition, ‘the most accurate and complete edition of Lucian that has ever been published’ (Dibdin), made more accurate and extensive through reference to Parisian manuscripts which had never been published...

    £8000

  20. LUCRETIUS. 

    Titi Lucretii Cari de rerum natura libri VI.  Ad optimorum exemplarium veritatem exacti.  Quae praeterea in hac...

    Padua, Giuseppe Comino [for Volpi], 2 January 1721. 

    First Volpi–Comino edition of Lucretius’s famous materialist and Epicurean poem, the most notable Italian edition of the eighteenth century.  The present work is the product of the long-running and fruitful collaboration between the printer Giuseppe Comino and the scholars Giovanni Antonio...

    £450