Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

First edition, rare, of Pinto’s ingenious defence of the public debt. Pinto
(1715–1787), an economist and advisor to the Stathouder William IV,
maintained that the public debt supported ‘circulation’ and that England’s
economic advance had been promoted by her public debt and public credit.
‘Pinto’s Traité is written from a national as well as an international perspective.
His experience as a merchant and Wnancier in the Republic, along with
his knowledge of French and English economic thought, laid the foundations
for his European economic model. Pinto wanted above all to convince
his readers of the soundness of the British system of public debt.
This copy contains the sheet H*, entitled L’Etat des Finances en Angleterre
à la Wn de la session du Parlement en 1770, which is not always present and
not mentioned by Einaudi. It does not contain the Addition au Traité (pp.
369–384) and the errata leaf, which were later inserted in some copies.
Einaudi 4447; Goldsmiths’–Kress 10791; Higgs 5282; INED 3603; Stourm, p.
42; Szajkowski, Franco-Judaica, 868; see I. J. A. Nijenhuis, Een Joodse Philosophe.
Isaac de Pinto (1717–1787), Amsterdam, NEHA, 1992.
Natural History, Preparation and Qualities of Food StuVs
242 PISANELLI, Baldassare. Trattato della Natura de’ Cibi et
del Bere... Nel quale non solo tutte le virtù, & i vitij di quelli
minutamente si palesano; ma anco i rimedij per correggere i loro
difetti copiosamente s’insegnano. Venetia, Gio. Battista Porta,
1584. £2750
4to, pp. [viii], [ii] blank,1- 144, 155–162, (vere 152); printed
throughout within a woodcut frame; woodcut title vignette, illustrated
initial and head-piece; barely noticeable repair to blank margin of title
page; contemporary full vellum, spine lettered in manuscript; ties
lacking; a Wne copy.
First public edition, uncommon, of this very early cookery and gastronomy
book, only preceded by a folio edition of 1583 published in Rome.
Baldassare Pisanelli describes the natural history, the usages, the qualities of
fruits (such as apples, strawberries, grapes etc) and vegetables (such as
mushrooms, artichokes, carrots, fennel, cucumbers etc), liqueurs, meats,
game, Wsh, milk, cheese etc, and gives detailed information of the conditions
under which such food and drinks should be used. There is a special
section devoted exclusively to wine, with its various types and usage.
Pisanelli (X. 1559–1583), a medical doctor from Bologna, became famous
on the strength of this book, which went through numerous subsequent
editions until the mid seventeenth century.
B.IN.G. 1498; BM STC Italian p. 521; Cagle 1168; Horn-Arndt 72; Simon
Bibliotheca Bacchica II.507; Simon Bibliotheca Gastronomica 1171; Vicaire 682 (listing
this edition as the Wrst); Westbury, p. 173.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
243 PLACCIUS, Vincentius. De Arte Excerpendi. Vom Gelahrten
Buchhalten Liber Singularis, quo Genera & pracepta excerpendi, ab
aliis hucusq; tradita omnia. Stockholm and Hamburg, Gottfried
Liebezeit, 1689. £1250
Two parts in one volume, 8vo, pp. [vi], 228, [6], with 6 engraved
plates, bound without the errata leaf; 80; some light browning and
spotting throughout, faint dampstain to upper margin of Wrst two
signatures; contemporary vellum-backed beech boards, covered with
marbled paper, lower corners chipped.
First edition, uncommon, of Placcius’ unusual system of note taking and
indexing – in eVect the forerunner of the card index catalogue. Placcius suggested
taking notes on slips of paper, to be stored in a specially designed
Scrinium Literatum, a ‘literary chest’. The slips of paper were stuck onto
hooks labelled according to their topic. He explains in detail his preference
for slips of paper over the more common bound notebooks, pointing out
that extra slips could easily be added or deleted and moved between
diVerent categories. With this method he avoided the usual problems of
running out of space in the notebooks, or having to copy out entries repeatedly.
He also used his Scrinium for Wling his notes, printed pamphlets, programmes
or fragments of books. The Wnely engraved plates show the slips,
and diVerent designs of the Scrinium, the literary chest. Leibniz is said to
have had one made according to Placcius’ design.
Placcius (1642–1699) a professor at Hamburg, was a proliWc writer and
is best known for his dictionary of pseudonymous works (1674).
Uncommon, NUC, OCLC list copies at Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Keio
University, Japan; see Petzholdt, p. 103 (note), see Ann Blair, Coping with Information
Overload in Early Modern Europe, talk delivered at Princeton, 14 February
2003.