Manuscripts
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# 17833
Book of Hours (Use of Rouen)
Northern France (Rouen), c. 1490-1510. In Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment; with 4 large miniatures with architectural borders, 10 large arch-topped miniatures, 8 small miniatures, and 24 calendar miniatures by a follower of the Master of the Échevinage of Rouen and the Playfair Hours Master, with borders by Jean Serpin. ii (paper) + i (parchment) + 96 …
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# 17253
HALL, James Norman (1887-1951)
[BOUNTY; TAHITI] James Norman Hall : typed letter, signed, by the co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty.
Typed letter, [7] pages, on thin paper, 280 x 215 mm, headed ‘At Sea, about 500 miles from N.Z. Sunday, August 19th, 1934’; with pencil map of ship’s journey through the islands of Tahiti and three lines of handwritten text; a private letter full of vivid, detailed descriptions of Tahiti as if it were being seen …
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# 15546
[MANUSCRIPT] A Journal or Narrative of the Proceedings betweene the Commissioners appointed by His Majestie, and the Commissioners Deputed by the States Generall, pursuant to the Treaty of Peace made at Westminster 9/19 Ffebruary 1673/4 Concerning a Treaty Marine to be observed throughout all the World. And also an Article particularly relateing to the English and Dutch East India Companyes Concluded in the yeare 1674.
[London, 1674-75]. Folio, old mottled calf gilt, spine with raised bands, gilt ornament, red leather title labels lettered in gilt, all edges gilt; manuscript written in English, Latin, Dutch and French in several contemporary secretarial hands; ff 269; clean and fresh throughout. An important contemporary manuscript record of the Mixed Commission established to draw up a Treaty Marine and …
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# 15565
Nicetto, Juan Bautista; Fortet, Pierre Paulle (translator)
[MANUSCRIPT] Briefue Relacion de ce qu’il y a de plus remarquable dans la grande Chine, envoyée par le R.R.P.P. Jean Baptiste Nicetto Missionaire Apostolique dans ce grand Empire, & traduitte fort fidelement de l’Espagnol en langue française.
[Mexico, 1708]. Small quarto, old marbled papered boards; ex libris of Florencio Gavito to front pastedown; manuscript in ink in a neat contemporary hand, pp 13; colophon at the foot of the last page: ‘In Mexico, this 20th November 1708. Most faithfully translated by Pierre Paulle Fortet, currently in this city, capital of the Kingdom of New …
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# 16669
KIPPIS, Andrew (1725-1795)
[COOK] Andrew Kippis : autograph letter, signed.
Sydenham, Kent, 17 June 1776. Entire letter, manuscript in ink on single folio sheet of wove paper watermarked G.R., 360 x 230 mm, written on 1 1/4 sides, addressed to ‘The Rev. Mr. Parry, at Cirencester, Gloucestershire’, signed at the foot ‘Your most affectionate Brother and obliged Servant, And. Kippis’; remnants of wax seal; original …
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# 17482
[BAILLARD, Marie]
[MANUSCRIPT ATLAS] Contrées d’Europe
A beautiful manuscript atlas of the countries of Europe, drawn by a young French woman, Marie Baillard of the ‘2e. Cours des Réligieuses Saint-Charles de Saint-Pothin’, dated ’25 Juillet 1902′. Sketchbook, oblong folio (310 x 450 mm), printed card covers (short tear lower left front), [23] leaves with entries to recto only, comprised of title page …
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# 17105
[TASMANIA; WINE] Entire letter sent from Circular Head to Launceston, August 27 1847, regarding the purchase of port wine.
Manuscript in ink, single folio sheet, 370 x 235 mm, folded, headed ‘Circular Head, August 27 1847’, signed at the foot ‘Yours truly, W. [Shepman?]’; outer side addressed to ‘W. Johnstone Esq. Launceston’ and endorsed ‘[Per] “Mercury”‘ / Paid’; old loss at 2 corners, small perforation from letter spike, but the letter itself is complete …
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# 15571
TOURNON, Charles-Thomas (Carlo Tommaso) Maillard de (1668-1710); THOMAS, Antoine (1644-1709)
[MANUSCRIPTS] Copy of a report by Cardinal Maillard de Tournon sent from Macau to the Propaganda Fide, 1705; [together with] Supplicatio facta Imperatori, being a copy of a document relating to Tournon’s imprisonment at Macau, by Antoine Thomas and others [1707]
Small quarto, recent marbled papered boards with gilt lettered and decorated morocco label to upper board; front pastedown with ex libris of H.P. Kraus; manuscript in ink on wove paper with anchor watermark; pp [2 blank], [5 Report of Tournon], [4 Supplicatio facta Imperatori], [1 blank]; both documents are written in the same neat secretarial …
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# 16839
FREYCINET, Louis Claude de Saulces de (1779-1841)
[FREYCINET] A series of manuscript preparatory notes for the Annales Maritimes et Coloniales, 1833
The great French navigator Louis de Freycinet (1779-1841) sailed with Baudin on his famous expedition in Australian waters (1800-1803), and his map, subsequently published in 1811 in Péron’s Voyage de découvertes aux terres australes, was the first to show a complete outline of the coastline of Australia. He later circumnavigated the globe in the Uranie in 1817-1820 …
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# 16690
BROMBY, Charles Henry (1814-1907)
Charles Bromby, Bishop of Tasmania : autograph letter, signed, dated August 2 1864, thanking a parishioner for her donation towards future missionary work in the Bass Strait islands.
Manuscript in ink, 3 pp, octavo, headed ’49 Upper Davey [?] Ct., Aug 2 1864′, addressed to ‘Dear Mrs. Walker’ and signed at the foot ‘C.H. Tasmania’, the signature endorsed below in pencil by the recipient ‘Dr. Bromby, Bishop’; original folds, some age toning and tiny loss at top corner of last side (resulting in …
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# 16694
[WESLEYAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY]; TURNER, Nathaniel; SIMPSON, William
[MANUSCRIPT] Pair of letters containing reports on the Wesleyan Missionary Society in Tasmania, 1843
Two entire letters sent from Hobart Town to London, both written in a neat secretarial hand on 3 sides of one folded folio sheet, addressed to ‘The General Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, Centenary Hall, Bishopsgate Street within, London’, stamped in red and dated 1843; the address panels are annotated by the sender ‘VDL Minutes No. …
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# 16492
PROUTIERE, Réné
[CRIMEAN WAR] Manuscript compiled by a French cotton merchant and soldier, 1852-54.
Unbound manuscript in ink on laid paper, large octavo (200 x 150 mm), original stitching, first page with owner’s inscription ‘Cahier de coton de 1852 et 1853. Monsieur Proutière Réné, soldat au 35eme de ligne 1er Bataillon 4ème Compagnie, à Inkermann (Crimée) armée D’orient Inkermann’; [9] pages of accounts relating to the purchase and sale of …
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# 16790
MICHELET, Maria
[BOUGAINVILLE; COOK] Biographie des hommes illustres
A late nineteenth century French schoolgirl’s manuscript exercise book. Small quarto, bound in contemporary half grey cloth over silk covered boards, [66] pp with entries written in a fine hand in black ink on lined paper, title page reading ‘Biographie des hommes illustres. Maria Michelet. 1893‘, very clean and free from foxing, containing Maria’s short …
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# 15736
GENDRON, Ernest
[MANUSCRIPT] Campagne de la Corvette à Voiles l’Alcméne. Commandée par Mr. Coudein, Capitaine de Frégate, à destination des Mers du Sud et Océanie.
An important, unpublished first-hand account of the voyage of the French naval corvette Alcméne in the South Seas, 1848-1852, including extended descriptions of the loss of crew members to cannibalism in New Caledonia in 1850, and of the vessel’s infamous shipwreck at Kaipara on the west coast of New Zealand in 1851, whilst en route from Hobart Town to Tahiti. …
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# 16059
REGNOIRD, [?]
[MARITIME; MEDICINE] Etat des médicaments fournis au coffre de chirurgie du navire Le Prothée, armé par monsieur Herman, négociant.
The inventory of an eighteenth century French naval vessel’s dispensary, listing 90 different medicines and the quantity of each. The document is almost exactly contemporary with the departure of La Pérouse’s ships La Boussole and L’Astrolabe from Brest on 1 August 1785. [Drop title]. Bordeaux, 20 April 1785. Folio, [3] pp, manuscript in ink on laid paper watermarked DCIE, being an …
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# 15242
SFORZA, Gian Galeazzo Maria, 1469-1494; [Isabella of Aragon, 1470-1524]
A love letter to the Mona Lisa?
A signed love letter of the young Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1469-1494) to his future bride, Isabella of Aragon (1470-1524). Sforza was later a confidant of Leonardo da Vinci; Isabella is considered by art historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen to have been the model for Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Bifolium, 300 x 210 mm, the manuscript in a …