Catalogvs Variorvm Et Insignivm Librorvm, quos Adrianvs Vlack.
[Paris, for A. Vlacq] 1644.
4to (212 x 153 mm.). 16p. Double-column.
Stiff paper wrappers.
THIS IS AMONG THE EARLIEST PRINTED PARISIAN BOOKSELLER STOCK CATALOGS. It offers some eight hundred fifty predominantly Latin 16th- and 17th-century English, Dutch, French and Italian imprints, all organized by format, from folio to 24mo. The subjects and authors cut across all fields — Kepler, Brahe, Gessner, Fludd, Vesalius, Aldrovandi, the Koran, de Bèze, Buchanan, the Medici Arabic Gospels, a Hebrew psalter, Greek and Latin classics, emblem books, dictionaries, English history, travel, Blaeu maps, Machiavelli, cryptography, philosophy….
Having lately removed from London (where he was imprisoned for illegal trading), Vlacq announced his Parisian business with this catalog. He explains that not all his books have arrived, and customers requesting a specific title will be notified as soon as it is available. Soon enough he was banned again and forced to depart for The Hague. He published numerous books, including the first complete table of decimal logarithms.
I have only located copies in London and Paris. Quite browned (ferrous paper, narrow worm trail neatly repaired, one marginal stain).
¶Mandelbrote, “La nouvelle édition de Graham Pollard et Albert Ehrman, The Distribution of Books by Catalogue from the Invention of Printing to AD 1800” in Les Ventes de livres et leurs catalogues edd. Charon & Parinet 53 & 62; Pollard & Ehrman, Distribution of Books by Catalogue 100-2 & 116, Table XIII; Lesage et al., Catalogues de libraires 1473-1810 3106.
Price: $12,500.00