De Bry Rare Books
Member of ANZAAB - Australia
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Asia
Japan
Maps
Medieval Illuminated Manuscript Leaves
Pacific
New Zealand
De Bry Rare Books first came into being due to a love of early illustrated travel books. Our interests have broadened over time, and we now focus on early printed material, travel, and early manuscripts. We are an international business with a presence in both Auckland, NZ/Aotearoa and Oxford, UK. We are a member of ANZAAB & ILAB. Please follow us on Instagram - "DeBryRareBooks" - for regular updates on new arrivals.
Highlights
Louis Philippe, The King of France's Copy - "Field Sports of New South Wales"
$7250
"Field Sports, &c. &c. of the Native Inhabitants of New South Wales..."
-London 1813: First separate edition published without numbering to pages.
-Complete: 8,[10] with 10 hand coloured plates.
-BOUND FOR LOUIS PHILIPPE KING OF FRANCE AND DUC D'ORLÉANS (1773-1850)
The first significant work to be published illustrating the Indigenous Peoples of Australia. This copy bound for the Bourbon King Louis Philippe I of France, who was exiled in Britain during the Napoleonic wars (until 1815). Later owned by Horace William Wheelwright (1815-1865) who wrote "Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist"
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Raleigh's search for Eldorado - "Brevis & admiranda descriptio regni Guianae"
$20000
"Brevis & admiranda descriptio regni Guianae, auri abundantissimi, in America, seu novo orbe, sublinea aequinoctilia siti: Quod nuper admodum, annis nimirum 1564 [i.e. 1594]. 1595 & 1596."
-Nuremberg, Levinus Hulsius, 1599. Complete with map and 6 plates.
This famous account was published soon after Raleigh's failed attempt to discover Eldorado. The account is punctuated by accounts of mythical peoples including Ewaipanomas (people with faces on their bodies) and Women Amazonian warriors.
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15th Century Book of hours on parchment, Northern France
$22000
This is a beautiful book of hours from the last quarter of 15th Century produced in Northern France (possibly Artois). The book comprises 232 pages on parchment with one miniature and 13 floral and acanthal borders. The manuscript has evidence of ownership over several generations, with later 18th Century additions form the Alba family in Italy, and a highly personal 19th century binding. The binding inscription describes the book as a gift on New years day 1872 with the Occitan inscription “A year of Love and Happiness in Tuscany 1869”
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Scare early work on Tuberculosis - Timothy Byfield 1685 - "Two Discourses: One of Consumptions, with their Cure"
$2850
"Two Discourses: One of Consumptions, with their Cure..."
Timothy Byfield, London, 1685. Complete, small 4to, [6], 31,[1].
This is the first and only edition of this scarce work on the treatment of consumption (now identified as tuberculosis). In the book, Timothy Byfield rejected traditional medical explanations for consumption and promoted his “new method” of cure.
Timothy Byfield (1651–1723) was an Irish physician educated at Cambridge who later practiced in both Ireland and London. He is best known for being regarded as one of the earliest physicians to patent a medicine: “Sal Volatile".
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The First Modern Scientific Journal Printed in Asia - Batavia (Jakarta) 1779 - "Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Wetenschappen"
$9000
The “Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap" was printed in Batavia (Jakarta) by the VOC printer Egbert Heemen. Printed in 1779, it is regarded as the earliest modern scientific journal printed in Asia.
This first volume contains a wide range of scholarship produced in the Dutch East Indies, including reports on smallpox inoculation in Batavia, botanical classification of Malay plants, and agricultural studies on sugar production. This copy is missing pages 1-4, but retains its original decorative boards.
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"A Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke" London, Humfrey Lownes, 1608"
$32000
This is the second edition of one the great examples of English music printing.
The lavish title page is rich in allegory and includes the classical figures of Ptolemy, Strabo, and Polybius, alongside representations of Arithmetic, Geometry, and Music. The design reflects the Renaissance view of music as not just a performing art, but also an intellectual and mathematical discipline.
The work is celebrated for its musical typography in a table-book format. Vocal parts are printed in different orientations on a double page so that several singers could read and perform from a single copy.
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