RAFAIL, monk (engraver, translator, and editor)
Uşa pocăinţei adecă carte foarte umilitoare… [Door of Repentance. That is, a Very Humiliating and Very Useful Book for the Soul]
A pleasant, complete copy of this beautiful Romanian religious production, with unusual, striking plates. Very rare, with no copies traced outside Romania. With feminine provenance.
![Image for [OLD BELIEVERS]. Tsvetnik [Florilegium]. Illustrated manuscript, Russian Empire, 1760s. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/3060_1-300x244.jpg)
A stunning Church Slavonic manuscript, with a suprising wealth of striking watercolours illustrating wide-ranging religious texts, and an intersting style incorporating West-European features. Datable to the 1760s - rare.
![Image for [BIBLE, Armenian]. Gospels. Second Bortoli edition. Venice, 1759. In a fine binding. #3](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/3332_2-300x416.jpg)
Lovely example of these Gospels in Armenian, printed in Venice by Bortoli in 1759, with a new set of plates, and here in a richly gilt binding.
[BELLARMINO, Roberto and] Pietro PAOLO (transl.)
Arrawyel Parzabanut'iwn K'ristoneakan... Dichiaratione più copiosa della Dottrina Christiana [Further Clarification of the Christian Doctrine]
The Borghese copy of an important book: the first translation into Armenian of this major text of the Catholic Church. This is the first complete edition in Armenian and the second book printed in Armenian by the Propaganda Fide. Scarce, with only 3 copies traced in the US.
![Image for POLANCUS & BUDINIC. Ispravnik za erei... [Guide for Priests...]. First edition in Croatian Glagolitic. Rome, 1635. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/3117_1-300x440.jpg)
POLANCUS, Joannes [Juan Alfonso de POLANCO] and Sime BUDINIC (transl.)
Ispravnik za erei, ispovidnici, i za pokornih [Guide for Priests, Confessors and the Penitent]
Fresh example of this Propaganda Fide edition in Croatian Glagolitic of an important Jesuit text for priests. Uncommon.
A complete copy of this magnificent production of high-level Russian art history, here focusing on manuscript decorations over centuries and many various regions, with many superb examples, from Central Europe, Georgia, Armenia, Egypt, Central Asia etc.
SIMEON, Novyi Bogoslov [SYMEON, the New Theologian]
Prepodobnogo ottsa nashego Simeona Novago Bogoslova...slovesa zelo polezna [Practical Words]
Lovely manuscript of 'Words' still unpublished at the time. In unusually fresh condition on fine blue paper and presented to a Russian business woman.
![Image for [BIBLE, Slavonic]. Evangelie [Gospels]. First edition under Catherine the Great. Complete. Moscow, 1762. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2868_1-300x233.jpg)
[BIBLE, Slavonic] – Vailei IKONNIKOV (engraver) and Semen VTOROV (artist)
Evangelie [Gospels]
Very rare, with no copy traced outside Russia, and only two there. First separate edition of the Church Slavonic Gospels published under Catherine's reign, illustrated, complete and in a lovely, fragile velvet binding.
![Image for L. TOLSTOY. Kritika dogmaticheskogo bogosloviia [Critique of Dogmatic Theology]. First edition, rare. Geneva, 1891-96. #2](https://www.pyrarebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/1333_1-300x436.jpg)
Rare first edition of Tolstoy's important critical religious text, published in Geneva as it was impossible to have it authorised in the Russian empire. No copy traced on the market in recent decades - this one a pleasant example.
A major work in Catherine the Great's active discovery of her empire: the first printed book on Kazan, its history and the Tatar region. First edition, in contemporary binding. Rare: the last copy at auction in the West was 50 years ago.
Lavish catalogue of this amazing art collection, now in the best museums of Russia. With more than 100 plates showing items from Byzantine, French, Italian, Caucasian cultures among others. A pleasant example of this volume, now very rarely seen on the market.
Great (if often negative) early account of pre-petrine Russia, with an important portrait of Tsar Alexei and a famous chapter on mushrooms - among many other remarks and anecdotes. Attractive example of the first edition.
Fine copy of this large-format scholarly publication, bringing to the public for the first time an Ottoman manuscript kept in the then British Museum, especially remarkable for its detailed account of Constantinople.
Appealing set of this first miniature edition of the Gospels in Russian, a typographic feat as the text is perfectly readable. Bound in full morocco and in excellent condition, from Vera Tishchenko's collection - a fine collector's provenance. Scarce outside Russia.
Great (if often negative) early account of pre-petrine Russia, here in an unusual, uncut copy of the first French edition, from a private lending library with the label detailing its lending conditions. Includes the famous illustrated chapter on mushrooms - among many other remarks and anecdotes.
[IOANNIKII, I.F., Archimadrite]
Istoriia pervoklassnogo stavropigialnogo Solovetskogo monastyria [History of Stavropegic first-class Solovetsky Monastery]
Very good copy of this uncommon illustrated history of one of the most famous monasteries of Russia. With two large folding plans.
Great study of the religious habits and dogmas of Western Russians in th 17th century - finely illustrated with engraved plates by Picart. A fine copy of this uncommon edition.
First and only edition in Latin printed in Russia, of this important guide to a pretty strict religoious, and indeed Catholic, life in anticipation of death: unusual in the landscape of printing in Orthodox Russia. A well preserved copy of this rare book: no copies found outside Russia.