Valentinelli, Giuseppe.   BIBLIOGRAFIA  DEL  FRIULI.  $95.

 Cloth, Octavo.xviii, 540pp. Venezia: Tipografia del commercio, 1861. The Friuli is a region of northeastern Italy, bordering north and east on Austria and Yugoslavia, south on the Adriatic Sea, and west on Veneto. The principal cities are Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, and Trieste. Valentinelli’s work is the most comprehensive work on the subject, covering more than 3655 printed items. Besterman 2385.

Vambery, Armin, 1832-1913. SKETCHES OF CENTRAL ASIA; ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS ON MY TRAVELS, ADVENTURES, AND ON THE ETHNOLOGY OF CENTRAL ASIA. $75.00

Hardbound. Octavo. viii, 444 p. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1868. New Copy. Vambery came from a poor Jewish family. He attendedthe village school in his native town until the age of twelve and showed a remarkable aptitude for learning languages. By the age of sixteen, he had a good knowledge of Hungarian, Latin, French, and German. He was also rapidly acquiring English, theScandinavian languages, Russian, Serbian, and other Slavic languages. In 1861 he received a stipend of a thousand florins, and in the autumn of the same year, disguised as a Sunnite dervish, and under the name of Reshit Efendi, he setout from Constantinople. His route lay from Trebizond on the Black Sea to Tehran in Persia, where he joined a band of pilgrims returning from Mecca, spending several months with them traveling across Central Asia (Tabriz, Zanjan, and Kazvin). He then went to Shiraz, through Ispahan, and in June, 1863, he reached Khiva. Throughout this time, he succeeded in maintaining his disguise as "Reshit Efendi," so that upon his arrival at Khiva he managed to keep up appearances during interviews with thelocal khan. Together with his band of travelers, he then crossed Bokhara and arrived at Samarkand. Initially, he aroused the suspicions of the local ruler, who kept him in an audience for a full half-hour. Vámbéry managed to maintain his pretences,and left the audience laden with gifts. Upon leaving Samarkand, Vámbéry began making his way back to Constantinople, traveling by way of Herat. There he took leave of the band of dervishes and joined a caravan to Tehran, and from there, via Trebizond and Erzerum, to Constantinople, arriving there in March 1864. This was the first journey of its kind undertaken by a Western European; and since it was necessary to avoid suspicion, Vámbéry could not take even fragmentary notes, except by stealth. He returned to Europe in 1864. That following June, he paid a visit to London, where he was treated as a celebrity because of his daring adventures and knowledge of languages. That same year, he published his Travels in Central Asia, based on thefew, furtive notes he was able to make while traveling with the dervishes. Returning to Hungary, Vámbéry was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest in 1865, retiring in 1905. Bookseller Inventory # 1299

Van Hoesen, Henry Bartlett. ROMAN CURSIVE WRITING. $65.00

Oversized octavo. viii, 268 p. tables (part fold.) Princeton, Princeton University press; 1915. Like the Greeks, the Romans also developed cursive writing.  Roman cursive almost always maintained separate, unconnected letters.  Its main characteristic was the attempt to reduce the number of strokes per letter while maintaining legibility.  As with Greek writing, nearly every letter was reduced to a solitary pen or stylus stroke.
The graffiti at Pompeii and Herculaneum comprise some of the earliest Roman cursive writing that has survived, most of it written between A.D. 63 and 79.
Roman cursive was the everyday language of the Roman Empire.  It is also found preserved in Roman wax tablets and tiles.
Van Hoesen's work is one the basic texts on the subject.

Vicaire. BIBLIOGRAPHIE GASTRONOMIQUE.  $65.  

 8vo. xvii pp, 972 cols. [4,000 entries]. Paris, 1890. ISBN 1-888262-35-4. Bibliographie Gastronomique is a classic bibliography on food, drink, cooking, kitchens, gourmets, gastronomes and everything that pertains to the pleasures of the talbe. Its meticulously detailed descriptions, which include Vicaire’s unsurpassed notes, of over 2,500 works make it one of the most important bibliographical contributions to gastronomy and its allied arts.

1228

Vigeant, Arsène . La Bibliographie De L'escrime Ancienne Et Moderne. $65.00

Octavo. 172 pgs. Illustrated; Paris: Imprimé par Motteroz, 1882 A standard work on fencing. Scarce in the trade. In all 234 early books on fencing described in detail. Listing is by author with alphabetical arrangement. Besterman 2138.

  Cloth, Octavo.  Four parts  + index in one volume.  1294 pages.  Milano:  Libreria Vinciana, 1948-1951

. Between 1948 & 1951 the Italian booksellers Libreria Vinciana compiled four catalogues exclusively on Italian authors of the 17^th century. These four fascicules were annotated catalogues of books for sale by the firm.  Included are over 5000 printed items covering every aspect of Italian life in the 17^th century.  The first part covers history, the second science, the third literature and the last theatre and art. Included are author, full title, and detailed description including pagination, plates, and very useful annotations.  There are also cross- references to other standard works like Cicognara, Brunet etc. The catalogue has been much sought after but difficult to use, given the fact that finding material was very difficult to do without an index. Penelope Hough of Owl at the Bridge has provided an indispensable index to all four parts of this catalogue.  The index is included in our reprint edition.

Hardbound. Cloth. 8vo. 114. map, Frontispice. New York: 1926. STRICTLY LIMITED TO 150 hand-numbered Copies.