LONDON.- Bellmans is holding its Printed Books & Manuscripts sale on the 16 July with a wide range of lots. The sale includes some rare examples of 15th to 17th Century books and maps.

The oldest is an incunable from 1481 - Bartholomaeus’s De proprietatibus rerum [On the Properties of Things], which was printed in Cologne in by Johanem koelhoff de lubeck and carries an estimate of £3,000 -£5,000. Bartholomaeus Anglicus or Bartholomaeus de Glanville (c.1203-72) wrote about daily life with often amusing accounts of animals and children, but also helpful suggestions on how to set a table and give dinner. He clearly had considerable power of observation and a dry sense of humour. It was an early encyclopedia of what was then understood by natural science and was hugely popular in the Middle Ages. He has a scientific interest in facts and phenomena and the book covers everything from God, angels (and demons), mind and soul, family life, medicine, the universe, geography and the natural world.

An unusual feature of this copy are the contemporary foliate pen flourishes which extend from some initials into the margins, as well as the scribe's doodles and several initials are also decorated in the same hand, with a few incorporating human faces. The Chancery folio (287 x 205mm) with 456 leaves of text include 10 leaves of "contents" at the front and there are indications of several previous owners.

Nicholas Worskett, book and manuscript specialist at Bellmans, says: "Our forthcoming auction includes a unique copy of an incunable from 1481, Bartholomaeus’s De proprietatibus rerum, which includes some delightful drawings of hares, oak leaves and acorns, the kind of seemingly arbitrary scribe's 'doodles' sometimes found in the margins of Medieval manuscripts. The scribe decorated several initials in the same hand, with a few incorporating human faces, but it’s the drawings of hares which add a great deal of charm to this copy."

A very fine copy of an engraved twin-hemisphere world map from the 16th Century, most likely printed in Antwerp in 1571, is another highlight of the auction in superb condition. Benedictus Arias Montanus (1527-98) edited an eight-volume Polyglot Bible with text in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Syriac under the patronage of Philip II of Spain and published between 1569 and 1572. The map is particularly renowned for its intriguing depiction of a coastline which roughly corresponds to the northern coast of Australia, long before that country's "official" European discovery by the Dutch in 1606. Also depicted is a land bridge between Asia and the Northwest coast of America. This map is from the first edition, of which the greater number of impressions were lost at sea on route for Spain, it has printed on the verso Orbis Tabula. Ben. Aria Montano. Auctore, without the word gentes found in the second state. It is expected to sell for £2,000-£3,000.

Like the Bartholomeus, a copy of De Indiæ utriusque re naturali et medica. Libri quatuordecum, Quorum contenta pagina sequens exhibet by Willem Piso (1611-78) & others was also part of the John Yudkin library (see bookplate). Printed in Amsterdam in 1658 with three parts in one volume, this is the second, and significantly enlarged, edition of this work on the natural history and medicine of Brazil, based on the author's experience as a physician living in a Dutch settlement there from 1633 to 1644. Incorporated into the additional engraved pictorial title is an illustration of a Dodo which became extinct some 40 years after this edition's publication, although the last widely accepted recorded sighting was in 1662, only four years after: it is tempting, therefore, to speculate that this may be among the last representations of a Dodo which could have been drawn 'from life'. It is estimated at £1,500-£2,500. A copy of a Nieuwe Cronyk Van Zeeland by Matthaeus Smallegange (1624-1710, editor and contributor) was printed around 1696 in Amsterdam and carries an estimate of £1,000-£1,500.

Another interesting lot, particularly of Irish interest, is an album of about 50 autograph letters and clipped signatures, and about 40 photographed portraits. Many of the letters are of Irish political interest, often relating to Limerick. Among the Irish celebrities are Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) and his son John (1810-58), William Smith O'Brien (1803-64). Other people of political importance are Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) and John Bright (1811-89). Among those famous for their writing or art are Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-92), John Ruskin (1819-1900) and Alec Waugh (1898-1981) and worth mentioning philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and anthropologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95). The album is expected to sell for £1,500-£2,500.

There are also two remarkable photograph albums included. One with views of Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Manila and Japan from around 1880, with many cities almost unrecognisable. The almost 180 print photographed views is estimated at £700-£1,000, while an album from the second Anglo-Afghan War with 25 fine mounted albumen silver print photographed views of Afghanistan, including many of military interest, carries an estimate of £500-£800. Also included in the album are two amateur watercolour views of Afghanistan, each captioned in manuscript, but unsigned, one dated "Aug. 1880"; together with various other unrelated photographs of European subjects, including several of Norway. The second Anglo-Afghan War was waged between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880. The name of the photographer is unrecorded, although his work invites comparison with that of John Burke (c.1843-1900) who is known for his photographs of the same war: in particular, the photograph of "Ordnance Captured at Cabul" in the present album was clearly taken at the same scene and at the same time as Burke's famous image of the same taken after the Battle of Ali Masjid on 21 November 1878, although from a slightly different angle. Several of the photographs are to be found in the collection of the National Army Museum, London, where the photographer's identity is not stated.