De Bry Rare Books

    Member of ANZAAB - Australia

    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.

Contact Information
Website: https://www.debryrarebooks.com

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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"Sketches of Lago Maggiore and Pallanza" - with 17 accomplished watercolours of the Italian lakes by a woman traveller and accompanied by a letter from Queen Victoria's Private secretary
$4250
A personal record of a lady's season in the Italian Lakes, illustrated with accomplished watercolours, including views of Isola Madre and Santa Caterina and studies of palms, oranges, olive branches, cloisters, flowers and lakeside scenery. The volume is accompanied by two short letters from Sir Henry Ponsonby acknowledging copies of the book presented to Queen Victoria during her stay at the nearby Villa Clara in 1879. One note conveys “the commands of Her Majesty the Queen to thank the Revd. W. Owen for the volume which he has forwarded”. OCLC records only 5 institutional copies.
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Rare early Thai astronomical printing and description of the 1850 solar eclipse. - J.H. Chandler Union Press Bangkok -1850 Almanac
$12500
This Almanac was printed in Bangkok in 1850 by John Hassett Chandler. The first book was not printed in Thailand until 1837, so this is an early imprint. The text for this 1850 almanac is particularly interesting as it includes a very early description of Western astronomy aimed at a Thai audience. The description of the mechanism of an eclipse, and the map of route of the upcoming solar eclipse demonstrated Western understanding of the universe. We know that King Mongkut (1804-1868) had a deep interest in Western science, and famously accurately predicted the 1868 solar eclipse in Thailand.
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Richard Pynson’s De Termino Hillarii (1518): London Printed English Year Book with Sir Thomas Phillips and Lord Kenyon Provenance
$24000
An uncommon early English legal imprint printed by Richard Pynson (c.1449–1529), one of the most important figures in the history of English printing and successor to William Caxton. Appointed King’s Printer to Henry VII and later Henry VIII, Pynson was responsible for many of the earliest and most influential legal, administrative and literary works produced in England. The final leaf of this work has Pynson’s large printer’s device which depicts his initials in a shield supported by two figures.
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East Indies: First English edition "The voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto" London 1653
$7250
First published in Portuguese in 1614, this is the first English edition of Fernão Mendes Pinto’s celebrated account of his travels across Ethiopia, China, Japan, Siam, Pegu, and the East Indies. Blending adventure with sharp observation, the work became one of the most influential early European travel narratives on Asia. Although the preface defends some of the text’s more extraordinary claims, Pinto’s descriptions of East Asia played an important role in shaping European perceptions of the region for many years.
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