Amor librorum nos unit

Latin manuscript created for a pious laywoman from a Beguine community, shortly after the canonisation of St. Clare and the lifetime of St. Francis

Chinese scholar Fazang’s (643–712) commentary on the classic exposition of Mahayana Buddhism

The complete Book of Joshua from the Mannheim Court Library example of the first printed bible

One of the few Renaissance works of art to fully express the cultural world of the learned class of Italy – 50 plates, among the most enigmatic in the history of engraving

A hugely influential work from the “Founder of Anatomy in the Middle Ages” (Choulant-Frank)

“Parce mihi domine” (Spare me, o’ Lord)

A unique manuscript made for Queen Anne of Brittany

A spectacular entirely illuminated copy of one of the highest achievements in print of the Ferrarese illustration

Lavishly illuminated manuscript with original compositions

The first and only Italian blockbook: the so called Biblia pauperum. One of the five copies of the very first issue.

The most splendid book produced in the Northern Renaissance – and a literary memorial for Emperor Maximilian I

An important re-discovery – coloured under the direction of Tory himself in his famous “lavis à l’italienne”

“The most spectacular contribution of the book-maker’s art to sixteenth-century science” from the library of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

“A landmark in human thought. It challenged the authority of antiquity and set the course for the modern world…” (PMM)

A magnificent portolan atlas by Battista Agnese in its original binding, inscribed and attributed to Agnese by the eminent bibliographer Henry Harisse

Autograph manuscript of a work that caused a poetic revolution

The first edition of the Bassantin’s compendium on calculating planetary positions from the library of Mary, Queen of Scots

The masterpiece of Portugal’s supreme poet, Luis de Camões, with a description of his trip to the Arabian coast, and his stay in Ormuz. One of only two copies in private hands.

Bizarre new creatures, made up of more elaborate inanimate elements combined with human-animal hybrids. The third copy known, in a newly discovered second-state set of 26 plates.

The first appearance of Champlain’s seminal two-sheet map of the Great Lakes; the first collected edition of this landmark of discovery Americana; Count Hoym’s copy

A handsome copy of the tallest of the four folios

The most luxurious edition of van Mour’s depictions of Turkish Court, with hand-coloured plates, many enhanced with gold and chips of mica

Two different ideas of portraying Venice in the eighteenth century: the Capricci by Canaletto printed on large paper and the detailed Views by Marieschi.

Piranesi’s Masterpiece, including his famous “Career” in an early Rome edition

A composite atlas of Italy bound in red morocco with the arms of Louis, Dauphin of France, the only surviving son of King Louis XV, and the father of three kings of France.

A unique album of historical importance to the military history of the Russian Empire, from the library of Tsar Alexander II

First edition in the front rank of ornithological books by “a superlative bird artist” (Buchanan)

First edition of Darwin’s first separately printed work

Decadence and eroticism – the most important symbolist and modernist collection of poems

The foundation of modern evolutionary theory, in the distinctive green cloth

Notes from the House of the Dead presented to his friend who saw him off to Siberian exile

The publisher solicits a review in the most influential German periodical of the day

A glass-fronted chart case and set of charts from Queen Victoria’s Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert (II)

Inscribed in red crayon in memory of the Red House

One of 40 copies on vélin pur chiffon, with a duplicate suite of 18 woodcuts each numbered and signed by Braque