[Rarebooks] FS: Early writing books - facsimiles and studies

[Nina W. Matheson]

Greetings,
     These and many others are available on our 
website:  http://www.mathesonbooks.com :

Degering, Hermann.  Lettering: modes of writing in Western Europe from 
antiquity to the Eighteenth Century. With a preface by Alfred 
Fairbank.  London, Ernest Benn Limited [1965]. Original cloth. Fine in 
lightly chipped dust jacket with several closed tears. Second English 
edition. 240 plates. T/S.  $75.00

Osley, A. S.   Luminario, an introduction to the Italian writing-books of 
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries.   Nieuwkoop, Miland Publishers, 
1972. Original tan buckram. Fine in dust jacket with a faded strip at the 
top of the front panel and five small (1/4") circular stains near the foot 
of the rear panel. 173 pp. 116 numbered illustrations, plus 13 unnumbered 
vignettes, portraits and motifs from the writing-books.   $150.00

Wolpe, Berthold.   Preliminary notes from a study of the life & work of 
John de Beauchesne.  [n.p., printed by Robert Stockwell Ltd., 1975]. 
Original plain blue wrappers. Fine. Inscribed by Wolpe in the colophon: 
"For John Gartner / Berthold Wolpe / 15.5.83" (Gartner, the distinguished 
Australian book collector / book-plate designer / proprietor of the 
Hawthorn Press). One of 50 numbered copies. The title at the head of the 
text is John de Beauchesne & the first English writing-books. Publication 
information taken from WorldCat. 11 pp . 4 plates.  $45.00

Wolpe, Berthold, ed.   A newe booke of copies 1574. A facsimile of a unique 
Elizabethan writing book in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.  London, Lion and 
Unicorn Press, 1959. Original tan and orange cloth. A few faint spots on 
the fore-edge, otherwise fine. Edited, with an introduction and notes by 
Berthold Wolpe. One of 200 numbered copies. 99 pp. Introduction by Wolpe, p 
. 9-18. Facsimile with facing transcriptions, translations and comments, p. 
19-91. Appendix I-IV, p. 93-99.  $90.00

Faulmann, Karl.  Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift: 
populaer-wissenschaftliche Darstellung der Entstehung der Schrift der 
Sprache und der Zahlen sowie der Schriftsysteme aller Voelker der 
Erde.  Wien, Pest, Leipzig, A. Harleben's Verlage, 1880. Half brown cloth 
and darker brown cloth embossed to look like leather, printed paper label 
covering the front cover. Front cover label missing a piece at the lower 
right corner, corners rubbed, front joint partially cracked (hinges 
holding), handwritten paper label on the backstrip. 632 pp. 14 numbered 
color plates, as issued (plate 14 precedes plate 13 as in the table of 
contents). Many illustrat ions in the text. $150.00

Arrighi, Ludovico degli.  The first writing book, an English translation & 
facsimile text of Arrighi's Operina, the first manual of the Chancery hand. 
With introduction and notes by John Howard Benson.  New Haven, Yale 
University Press for Harvard College Library & The Newberry Library 
[c1954]. Original quarter red cloth and green marbled paper boards. Fine. 
One of 300 copies signed by John Howard Benson.  $100.00