China Monumentis Qua Sacris quà Profanis, Nec non variis Naturæ & Artis Spectaculis, Aliarumque rerum memorabilium Argumentis Illustrata, Auspiciis Leopoldi Primi Roman. Imper. Semper Augusti Munificentissimi Mecænatis
Complete with the engraved title page, a full-paged portrait of Kircher, 2 large folding engraved maps of China, 59 text engravings, and 23 full-paged engravings (one of which is a large folding reproduction of the "Nestorian Stele"), including some drawn by the artist Willem van der Laegh. This is a fine copy, bound in contemporary stiff vellum (lightly soiled.) The text and plates are crisp and mostly bright, with some light foxing or browning to scattered leaves, and a few clean tears, without loss (lvs. K2, L4, S1); natural paper irregularities to the margins of 2 plates (at p. 113 and p. 155), not affecting the image. This copy features a variant of the engraved title that states that this edition was printed at Amsterdam in 1667 "Vidua Elizei Weyerstraet", that is, by Sara Weyerstraet, widow of one of the original publishers, Elizaeus Weyerstraet (who died in late December 1666.) However, this is in fact the Antwerp counterfeit printed by Meursius in 1667, the engraved t.p. of which usually indicates Meurs and Antwerp as the publisher and place. "In 1667 the learned German Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, published his 'China Illustrata' at Amsterdam. Gathering his materials from the works of other members of the Society, Kircher wrote one of the century's most influential treatises on China. His primary purpose was to establish the authenticity of the Nestorian monument discovered in Sian, and to that end he produced in print the original Chinese and Syriac inscriptions on the monument, the Chinese text in Romanization, and finally a Latin translation and his explication of the Chinese and Syriac texts. In addition, Kircher included a sizeable description of China and other places in Asia. For example, in a section devoted to the various routes to China and the history of Christianity in China, he sketched all the old overland routes, including that of Johann Grueber and Albert d'Orville from Agra to Peking, as well as giving a description of Tibet. He traced the activities of Christians in China from the tradition of St. Thomas to Boym's reports about the conversions at the Ming pretender's court and Adam Schall's experiences at the Ch'ing court during the K'ang-his era. Following what he thought to be the spread of idolatry from the Near East to Persia, India, and finally to East Asia, Kircher described the religions of China, Japan, and India. His extensive discussion of Hinduism and the Mogul Empire derived from the letters of Heinrich Roth (1620-68), his fellow Jesuit. There are several chapters on government, customs, geography, fauna, flora, and mechanical arts of China, and a very interesting scholarly discussion of the Chinese language, which indicates that Kircher had made considerable progress in it. There is a long Latin-Chinese dictionary, and Finally Father Johann Grueber's (1623-80) responses to a long series of questions posed by the duke of Tuscany. Kircher's volume contains several beautiful pictures taken from Chinese and Mughul originals which Grueber brought back to Europe with him in 1664." (Lach pp. 485-486) "Although the "China Illustrata" was not the product of Kircher's own experience in China, it was frequently used or cited as a source of information y later writers. Some of the information contained in it, for example the text of the Nestorian monument, Roth's description of Hindu religion, and Grueber's description of Tibet, had not appeared in print before. "Roth's contribution to Kircher's work includes a description of the ten transformations (avatars) of Vishnu and several illustrations of Indian provenance, as well as a discussion of the Sanskrit language which is illustrated with five plates presenting examples of Sanskrit writing. Roth returned to Europe in 1662 accompanied by Grueber, who with Father Albert d'Orville had journeyed overland from Peking to Agra by way of Lhasa. In the busy years after his return to Europe, Grueber evidently tried to write a description of Tibet and f his journey across the Himalayas. Apparently he never finished it. He may have sent parts of it to Kircher, however; he wrote several letters to Kircher and apparently sent him some of his sketches, all of which formed the basis for a description of Tibet and of Grueber and d'Orville's journey in the "China Illustrata"-probably Europe's earliest account of the Tibetan capital. Kircher's account also contains eleven very interesting plates made from Grueber's sketches, including one of the Dalai Lama and one of the Potala Palace in Lhasa which was frequently reproduced and served as Europe's only glimpse of Lhasa for the following 250 years."(Lach pp. 527-528) "China Illustrata'' was in many ways [Kircher's] most significant work historically, being the first publication of important documents on oriental geography, botany, zoology, religion and language. Kircher admits in the preface that his main concern was to preserve the fruits of his colleagues' efforts, collected with so much effort and privation, and sometimes at the cost of their very lives. Foremost among his sources were Johann Adam Schall; Bento de Goes, who in 1602 had left from the Jesuit station in Agra, north India, to find a land route to China and seek the fabled land of Cathay; Kircher's former pupil Martin Martini, appointed mathematician to the Chinese Imperial Court and author of 'Novus Atlas Sinensis' (1655); and the trio of intrepid explorers Johann Grueber, Michael de Boym and Heinrich Roth, who all returned to Rome in 1664. Grueber, whose return journey had taken three years, and led him through Tibet, modern Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey, was an accomplished draughts man and supplied the originals for many of 'China's' topographical engravings. Boym provided those of Chinese flora, and transcription of Chinese characters that enabled Kircher to publish the first vocabulary of the language. Roth, who traveled with Grueber, had already become adept in Sanskrit, of which he compiled a dictionary. Here
More from Liber Antiquus Early Books & Manuscripts
Joyfull Newes out of the New-Found Worlde. Wherein are Declared, the Rare and Singuler Vertues of Divers Herbs, Trees, Plantes, Oyles & Stones, with their Applications, as well to the use of Phisicke as of Chirurgery. Englished by John Frampton
Bound in 17th century vellum (small defect to head of upper cover, very lightly soiled, working loose from text-block at rear.) A fine, fresh copy with occasional light toning, light soiling to title, as occasional light stain to the lower margin of scattered leaves; last four leaves lightly damp-stained. Illustrated with 11 woodcuts of New World plants (including an early depiction of the tobacco plant) and the armadillo. Provenance: contemporary signature at head of title, "Richardus Haydocke", possibly the physician and translator of that name (1569/70-c. 1642). Third English edition, translated by the English merchant John Frampton (fl. 1559-1581), of Nicolás Monardes' "Historia medicinal", a groundbreaking and highly influential work on New World medicine, including medicinal plants, remedies derived from animals and minerals, and information on Indigenous medicinal knowledge and practice. The book also includes accounts of Native American culture. Frampton's translation, published in the first years of English exploration of the New World, was one of the few works on the Americas available in English prior to Hakluyt's "Principal Navigations" (1589). The book also includes a good deal of detail on Native American social customs, drawn from eyewitness testimonies. For instance, in the long section on tobacco, Monardes relates the practice of Indigenous priests, who having smoked tobacco, provided their congregations with "answers according to the visions and illusions which they saw while they were rapt." The author, the Spanish physician and trader Nicolás Monardes, practiced and taught medicine in Seville, the principal port for importing goods from the New World. "Monardes managed to compile an impressive catalogue of New World medicinal plants. He bought specimens from merchants and sailors, grew some of them at his own private garden, used them in therapeutic experiments on his patients, and interviewed many travelers to obtain information about the uses of the plants among American natives."(JCB) Monardes's book, published as "Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales" ("Medicinal inquiry into things [i.e. specimens/commodities] imported from our [i.e. Spain's] West Indies"), contains a wealth of information on New World plants used by the Amerindians for their medicinal properties, including tobacco (for curing breast cancer), coca, sassafras (good for tertian fever), sarsaparilla (of which Monardes' is the first published European description), the long pepper, mechoacan, and guaiacum (believed by Europeans to cure syphilis), as well as plants used for food, such as maize, peanuts, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Monardes also describes curative substances derived from animals, such as the powdered bones of armadillos (for tinnitus), ambergris from sperm whales, and bezoars from llamas and other ruminants. Minerals and metals with supposed medicinal properties described by Monardes include iron, silver, and nephrite jade. The book opens with a brief mention of Columbus' discoveries "of many & sundry islands and much firm land. [yielding] gold, silver, pearls, emeralds, and other fine stones of great value." See Piñero, "Las 'nuevas medicinas' americanas en la obra de Nicolas Monardes", Asclepio 421 (1990), p. 3-67. Monardes' book was, above all, of great value to physicians and naturalists; the publication of the first part (in 1569), inspired others to seek out specimens in the Americas, many of which were sent back to Monardes by their discoverers. Monardes, in turn, included these testimonies in the second part of his book (printed in 1571). European scientists mined the book for information, among them the eminent botanist Carolus Clusius, who translated Monardes' book into Latin and drew on the "Historia natural" for his own works in materia medica. The book remained for many years "the most important work on the medicinal plants of the New World" (Garrison & Morton 1817). Amerindian Culture: The following are just two of many descriptions of Native cultural practices in Monardes' book. In a letter which Monardes received from the Spanish soldier-explorer Pedro de Osma, we learn that the Peruvians offered up bezoars (concretions found in the guts of llamas and other ruminants) to their gods: "because the Indians doe esteeme muche of these stones, and they doe offer them unto their Goddes, or to their praiyng places where their Idols are, unto whom they doe offer the thinges that are most precious. And so they doe offer these stones, as a thyng of greate estimation, and also they doe offer, Gold, Silver and Precious stones, Beastes and Children." Another report, from Florida, describes the Amerindians' use of ambergris for both medicinal and cosmetic purposes: "[A] passenger from Florida gave him a very good piece of ambergris, saying he had obtained it in Florida. I took the piece and broke it, and ambergris poured from inside it, with very good colour, while the outside was black, I asked him where he had found it and he said it was from the coast of Florida: and the Indians were those who collected it the most: because they used it, for their pleasures and contentment, applying the oil on their faces, and other parts of their bodies, for its nice scent: it surprises me to see such good amber coming from our Western Indies (.) that they now bring such great ambergris, so valuable in the world, used for the body's health, and needed to heal or treat so many different illnesses, as we will address: it's something very useful to men as treatments, embellishment and pleasure." This volume concludes with three supplemental texts added by Monardes to the 1574 edition of his book, here with divisional titles: "A booke which treateth of two medicines most excellent against all venome, which are the bezaar stone, & the hearbe escuerconera" (leaves [111r]-138r); "The dialogue of yron" (leaves 139r-163v); and "The boke which treateth of the snow" ( An Answere to a great Number of Blasphemous Cavillations written by an Anabaptist, and Adversarie to Gods Eternall Predestination. And Confuted by John Knox, Minister of Gods word in Scotland. Wherein the Author so Discovereth the craft and falsehood of that sect, that the godly knowing that error, may be confirmed in the Truth by the Evident Word of God
Title page with woodcut printer's device. Decorative headpieces. Floriated initials. Text in single column Roman font with occasional marginal notes in italics. Bound in brown crushed morocco by Riviere and Son, the boards gilt- and blind-ruled in compartments, with floral tools at the angles. All edges gilt. The title page and final leaf are slightly soiled and toned from washing The rest of the text is very fine, with just a bit of scattered soiling and very light damp-staining to the lower margin; a very minor ink stain is just visible at the extreme outer margin of some leaves. Provenance: Front pastedown with the bookplate of John Richie Findlay of Edinburgh (1824-1898). Both this and the 1560 edition are very rare. Second edition of this work by the preeminent Scottish Reformer, John Knox. The title is often standardized as "An Answer to a Great Number of Blasphemous Cavillations of an Adversary Respecting the Doctrine of Predestination" or simply "On Predestination". Knox's treatise is a refutation of an anonymous Anabaptist treatise, "The Confutation of the Errors of the Careless by Necessity" (1557-1559), which espoused an Anabaptist view of the Doctrine of Predestination that was at odds with the views of Calvin and the Scottish reformer. The Anabaptist author asserted that Calvin "depicted a cruel God ordaining the majority of mankind to condemnation, and a human existence devoid of choice or responsibility"(DNB). In his refutation, Knox quotes at length from the works of Calvin. There was widespread concern both in England and Scotland as well as in Europe that radical Anabaptism could once again lead to violence and anarchy, as it had previously in Europe. Knox's critique of the Anabaptist position on predestination was intended as a counter-measure. "John Knox's understanding of predestination and assurance [i.e. the idea that if a person believes in salvation through Christ, then he is one of the elect] is deeply grounded in his understanding of God's nature, particularly His immutability. God's love toward His elect is immutable; those elected can never fall out of divine love or be eternally lost. Conversely, Knox regards reprobation (God's power to exclude a person from the number of the elect or from salvation) as equally immutable and divinely determined."(Park, "John Knox's Doctrine of Predestination and Its Practical Application for His Ecclesiology", PRJ 5, 2 (2013), p. 75) John Knox (ca. 1514-72) became a Protestant in the mid-1540s in his native Scotland. His faith deepened during the 19 months that he spent as a prisoner in a French galley, and in the 1540s rose to prominence in the English church, working alongside Cranmer in the service of King Edward VI. With the ascension of Mary Tudor to the English throne, Knox was forced into exile. He spent four years on the continent, where he sought the advice of Calvin on numerous questions of doctrine, and for a short time led the English exile community in Frankfurt. In 1556, after a brief time back in Scotland, Foxe returned to Geneva, where he and his wife, Marjory, welcomed two sons. The Geneva Sojourn was probably the happiest period in his life. In the midst of the English exilesKnoxfelt secure and valued. The deep friendshipsKnoxmade in the city sustained him for the rest of his life."(DNB) While in Geneva, Foxe crafted the Scots Book of Common Order (adopted 1562). He returned to Scotland in 1559, denouncing Mary Queen of Scots and her "monstrous regiment of women", and in 1560, the year in which Knox published "On Predestination", Knox and his comrades wrote and adopted the Scots Confession of Faith. "On Predestination": "Knoxwrote his longest work in Geneva, during the summer, autumn, and winter of 1558. When he returned home the manuscript was left in the city and guided through the press in 1560 by his friendWilliam Whittingham. Concerning the difficult theological doctrine of predestination,'An Answer to a Great Number of Blasphemous Cavillations'was a refutation section by section of a piece by an anonymous English Anabaptist, probablyRobert Cooche. The latter's tract, entitled'The Confutation of the Errors of the Careless by Necessity', had attackedCalvin'sexplanation of the decrees of election and reprobation, asserting that the Swiss reformer depicted a cruel God ordaining the majority of mankind to condemnation, and a human existence devoid of choice or responsibility. "Knox'srebuttal of it differs from his other writings in its length and its aim of elucidating a single doctrine. He retained his normal, destructive, polemical style, sharpened by a personal edge because, having been friends with his adversary,Knoxnow labelled him a blasphemer and liar. Employing an atypical device, he explicitly followedCalvin'sdoctrinal lead, employing long quotations from the reformer's writings on predestination. Disguised by his robust language,Knox'sown discussion was sometimes tentative or, when dealing with the reprobation of the wicked, not entirely consistent. Although neither theologically original nor penetrating, the work was an impassioned defence of God's election to salvation of the invisible church. ForKnoxthis represented the foundation of his own and every Christian's faith, humility, and obedience and the bedrock upon which he grounded his sermons. "InKnox'smind predestination was associated with the cosmic battle between the two armies, the church of God and the synagogue of Satan. Although predestination was essentially a message of salvation and consolation,Knoxwas acutely aware that identifying the elect was not a simple matter. The reprobate might themselves display signs of faith and sanctification for a time, making it impossible in this world to distinguish them from the elect.Knoxpressed home the point that the visible church was bound to contain many such hypocrites. Throughout his life this proposition provided a constant spur for him to be tireless in his admonitory preaching, and in h Dialogo de la Seraphica Vergine Santa Catharina da Siena: el qual profondissimamente tratta de la divina providentia: de quasi tutti li peccati mortali & de molte altre stupende, & maravigliose cose: como in el suo repertorio lucidamente appar. Insieme con la sua vita, & canonizatione & alcuni notabili capitoli composti in sua gloria, & laude. Nuovamente revisto, & con summa diligentia castigato
A very fine, fresh copy in early vellum (corners bumped, light soiling, lacking ties) with the original blue and white silk end-bands intact. Bright and clean internally. With the Sessa cat and mouse device on the title and final leaf. Early, faded inscription and early stamp of the Carthusian library at the Reichskartause Buxheim (Buxheim Charterhouse) on the t.p. The library was dispersed after secularization in 1803. A rare edition of "Il libro della divina dottrina", "The Book of Divine Doctrine" (also called the "Dialogue"), the culminating theological work of the Dominican tertiary mystic Saint Catherine of Siena (canonized 1461, feast day 29 April). Catherine composed the book, which takes the form of an inner conversation between the soul and God, two years before her death. The book was first published in Bologna ca. 1475 and reprinted five times in the fifteenth-century. In 1504 Lazaro di Soardi printed an edition at Venice. The next was printed by Cesare Arrivabene in 1517; the third by Sessa in 1540. This 1548 ed. is the fourth 16th c. edition. This edition includes a life of the saint, composed by an unnamed Dominican, drawn from the documents presented during the canonization process. The dedication to Isabelle d'Este, wife of GiovanniGaleazoSforza, duke of Milan, andBeatrice d'Aragona,wife ofLodovico Sforza, duke of Barri, is taken from the 1494 edition, in which this vita first appeared. The Italian translation of the text (from the Latin original) is attributed to Baldassare Azzoguidi, publisher of the first edition. Tradition held that Catherine dictated the work to her secretaries over the course of five days while she was in the throes of ecstasy. Historical evidence indicates that it was probably dictated over a period of months between December 1377 and October 1378. "The 'Dialogue' deals with the whole plan of salvation, with particular emphasis on Jesus Christ as the Bridge which unites man to God. Although it contains a rich theological doctrine, it does not present a systematic development of ideas. Catherine is not interested in speculative scholasticism; rather, she is moved by practical considerations. This is obvious from the first chapter of the Dialogue , where she addresses four petitions to the Eternal Father: (1) for herself; (2) for the reformation of the Church; (3) for the needs of the whole world; and (4) a petition to divine providence to provide for things in general and in particular. The rest of the Dialogue is taken up with the Father's response to these four petitions with interjections now and again from Catherine. "God's love for us in creation is so great that, according to Catherine, it reaches a point of 'madness'. In the last chapter, overcome by the realization of this 'madness' of love, she writes: 'I confess and do not deny that you loved me before I existed and that you loved me unspeakably, as if you were mad with love for your creature.' "Contemplating the Incarnation, Catherine cannot understand how God can love us so much that he would take on the lowliness of human nature: 'O abyss of love, what heart can help breaking when it sees such dignity as yours descend to such lowliness as our humanity? . For what reason? Love. By this love, O God, you have become man, and man has become God.' As in the case of Creation, so again, in the context of the Incarnation, Catherine exclaims that God must be 'mad' with love for us: 'It seems, O abyss of love, as if you were mad with love for your creature, as if you could not live without him; and, yet, you are God who has no need of us.' "The death of Jesus Christ is the supreme expression of God's mad love for man. Addressing Jesus Christ directly -something which she does rarely- Catherine asks: 'O loving madman, was it not enough for you to become incarnate, without also wishing to die?' She is convinced that nails would never have held Jesus Christ to the cross, if love had not held him there."(O'Driscoll) "Catherine was the youngest of 25 children born to a lower middle-class family; most of her siblings did not survive childhood. At a young age she is said to haveconsecrated her virginity toChristand experienced mystical visions. Convinced of her devotion, Catherine's parents gave her a small room in the basement of their home that acted as a hermitage. She slept on a board, used a wooden log for a pillow, and meditated on her only spiritual token, a crucifix. She claimed to have received an invisible (for humility) stigmata by which she felt the wounds of Christ. "At the age of 19, after a three-year seclusion, Catherine experienced what she later described as 'spiritual marriage' to Christ. In this vision, Jesus placed a ring on her finger, and her soul attained mystical union with God. She called this state an 'inner cell in her soul' that sustained her all her life as she traveled and ministered. "Catherine became a tertiary (member of a monastic third order who takes simple vows and may remain outside a convent or monastery) of theDominican order(1363), joining the Sisters of Penitence ofSt. Dominicin Siena. She rapidly gained a wide reputation for her holiness and her severeasceticism. In her early twenties she experienced a 'spiritual espousal' to Christ and was moved to immediately begin serving the poor and sick, gainingdisciplesin the process. "Her ministry eventually moved beyond her localcommunity, and Catherine began to travel and promote church reform. When the rebellious city ofFlorencewas placed under an interdict by PopeGregory XI(1376), Catherine determined to take public action for peace within the church and Italy and to encourage a Crusade against theMuslims. She went as an unofficial mediator toAvignon with her confessor and biographer Raymond of Capua. Her mission failed, and she was virtually ignored by thepope, but while at Avignon she promoted her plans for a Crusade. "It became clear to her that the return of Pope Gregory XI to Rome fromAvignon-an idea that she Poems By the most deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips The Matchless Orinda. To which is added Monsieur Corneille’s Pompey & Horace,} Tragedies. With several other Translations out of French
The portrait of Katherine Philips is bound opposite the title. Q-S1 ds at head, Ee2 stain, Ll1v stain, Aaa1 clean tear in text, Eee1 and Rrr1 nat pf, . [xxxiv], 198, [8], 112, [2]pp., folio. Engraved portrait by Faithorne, with the final blank leaf; clean tear in the lower blank margin of leaf 4A1, but a fine, fresh copy in contemporary blind-ruled calf with an eighteenth-century gilt spine label. Early signature "Eliza Gray" on title, with a faded inscription "Dundas" on the front pastedown endpaper and, just below and in the same hand, "Given Eliza." Eliza Gray was probably a relation of Agnes Gray (1622-1669), the wife of Sir John Dundas of Newliston. One possible candidate in Agnes's extended family is Elizabeth Gray, daughter of John Gray, 9th Lord Gray of Crichie. "The daughter of a London merchant, Katherine Fowler [her maiden name] was probably the first English woman poet to have her work published. She married a gentleman of substance from Cardigan, James Philips, and seems to have moved effortlessly into the literary circle adorned by Vaughan, Cowley, and Jeremy Taylor. She was best known by her pseudonym 'Orinda' and the name appears on the collection of her Letters, which give a useful picture of the early 17th-century literary world. Her translation of Corneille's 'Pompee' was performed in Dublin in 1663; a collection of her verses was published posthumously in 1664." (Stapleton) Mrs. Philips' poems were circulated in manuscript, and secured for her a considerable reputation. The surreptitious quarto edition produced in 1664 caused her much annoyance, and Marriott, the publisher, was obliged to withdraw it from sale, and publicly to express his regret for having issued it. Some trouble was taken, it would appear, to destroy the copies, which would account for its rarity. In the preface of the 1667 edition, reference is made to the 'false edition,' and a long letter from the author in relation to it is quoted. This is perhaps the most famous English collection of poems by a woman prior to 1700. P.W. Souers, in his critical biography of Katherine Philips, asserts for her the right to be historically the first English poetess-"In her, for the first time in the history of English letters, a woman was received into the select company of poets." Jeremy Taylor dedicated to her his "Discourse on the Nature, Offices, and Measures of Friendship;" Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan the Silurist, Thomas Flatman, the Earl of Roscommon, and the Earl of Cork and Orrery all celebrated her talent, and Dryden could pay no higher compliment to Anne Killigrew than to compare her to Orinda. FIRST SANCTIONED EDITION, preceded by a pirated and suppressed edition of 1664. De rebus Iaponicis historica relatio, eaque triplex: I. De gloriosa morte 26. crucifixorum. II. De legatione regis Chinensium ad regem Iaponiae, & de prodigijs legationem antegressis. III. De rebus per Iaponiam anno 1596.
Bound in contemporary vellum (soiled and a bit rumpled), re-cased. A very good copy with light toning, some marginal worming to the opening and closing leaves, affecting the odd catchword. Some early ink underscores and a few small ink blotches. Stamp (and accompanying deaccession stamp) of the Bibliotheca Albertina, Bonn, Germany) on verso of title. Leaf O8 with irregular fore-edge; corner of one leaf also irregular, not affecting the text in either instance. With a small woodcut of the type of crucifix used for the executions. The woodcut appears on the title page and again on p. 74 at the beginning of the chapter "In what way the 26 were crucified", in which the construction of the Japanese cross is described. This volume includes a vivid account of the crucifixion of twenty-six Catholics, twenty of them Japanese, in Nagasaki on February 5, 1597. Among the group was St. Paul Miki (1562-1597), one of the earliest native Japanese Jesuits. The author of the account, the Portuguese Jesuit Luís Fróis, was stationed in Nagasaki at the time as a Jesuit missionary. Two other works by Fróis follow in this collection: an account of the Chinese embassy to Japan in 1596 to sue for peace after Japan's invasion of Korea; and an account of the Jesuit mission during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's persecution of Christians in 1596. The twenty-six Christians, mainly Japanese, were crucified during the persecution of Christians by the second "great unifier" of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536/7-1598). The event was precipitated by an event in October 1596. A Spanish ship, the St. Filipe, had been shipwrecked on the island of Shikoku and the Spaniards intimated that the Christian missionaries were in Japan in preparation for a Spanish invasion. This enraged Hideyoshi, who ordered the arrest of certain priests and Japanese adherents. After an arduous, thousand-kilometer forced march from Kyoto to Nagasaki, those arrested were crucified on February 5, 1597. Among those martyred were three young Japanese boys, ages 12, 13, and 15; the Mexican chorister Felipe de Jesús, and three Japanese Jesuits. The three Jesuits were Paul Miki (b. 1564), James Kisai (1533), and Joãode Goto (b. 1578). Miki, born into a wealthy Japanese family, was brought up as a Christian; he received a Jesuit education at Azuchi and Takatsuki and became a renowned preacher. He was an irmao, a Jesuit brother, not yet ordained, at the time of his death. Joãode Goto, a dojuku (a novice monastic), lived as one of the "hidden Christians" (kakure kirishitan) on the island of his birth; he later studied with the Jesuits at Nagasaki and Shiki. He was only 19 when he was crucified. By far the eldest of the three, James Kisai was raised a Buddhist but converted in adulthood, divorcing his wife, who remained Buddhism. He began his novitiate in 1594 at the age of 63. Fróis' report details the imprisonment of the Christians, their sufferings on the long march from Kyoto to Nagasaki -including the loss of their left ears-, the abuse they faced from the crowds, and their continued efforts to preach, minister to, and convert their tormentors during these trials. Upon arriving at Nagasaki, the Christians made their final confession before being fastened to wooden crosses with iron rings. When the crosses were hoisted aloft, soldiers pierced their hearts with lances, killing them. After the executions, mourners approached the scene dip pieces of cloth in the blood and take them away as relics, as well as pieces of the martyrs' clothing or pieces cut off the crosses. As noted above, the peculiar form of the cross used by the Japanese for the executions is described on p. 74 and illustrated with a small woodcut. The Chinese Embassy to Japan: The second letter in this volume concerns the Chinese embassy to Hideyoshi's court in the ninth month of1596. The purpose of the embassy was to negotiate a peace treaty with Hideyoshi following Japan's invasion of Korea. The talks broke down and in 1597 Hideyoshi invaded Korea a second time. The 1596 Annual Report From Japan: The third work in this volume is Fróis' annual letter for 1596, written from Nagasaki, in which he discusses the state of Catholicism during the persecution of Christianity in Japan. The letter is rich in cultural details. Fróis describes encounters with Korean slaves, who were forbidden to attend Catholic services; the Japanese nun NaitÅ Julia (d. 1627), a former abbess of a Jodo Buddhist convent, and Kyogoku Maria (c. 1543-1618), who studied Catholic literature -given her by the Jesuits- while confined in Hideyoshi's palace. A note on the editions: Fróis wrote his letter on the martyrs in his native Portuguese; Gasparo Spitilli (1561-1640) translated the (unpublished) original into Italian for publication in 1599 (at Rome, Bologna, and Milan) as "Relatione della gloriosa morte di ventisei positi in croce per comandamento del Re di Giappone. 1597". The Latin text of this Mainz edition is based on the Italian. The printer, Albinus, also printed a German-language edition in 1599 as "Drey Japponische Schreiben.". FIRST LATIN EDITION, printed in the year of the first (Italian) edition. Hernach volgt des Bluthundts, der sych nennedt ein Türckischen Keiser, gethaten, so er und die seinen, nach eroberu(n)g der schlacht, auff den xxviii. tag Augusti nechstvergange(n) geschehe(n), an unseren mitbrüdern der Ungrische(n) lantschafften ga(n)tz unme(n)schlich triben hat, un(d) noch teglich tut
Bound in modern wrappers Light spotting and damp-staining to the margins. According to VD 16, this is one of seven editions printed in the year of the first, and the only one printed in Augsburg. One of the earliest accounts of the Battle of Mohács, waged between the Kingdom of Hungary under Louis II and the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, in which Hungary suffered a crushing defeat. This account, "Hereafter follow the deeds of the bloodhound who calls himself a Turkish Emperor." is "probably a report from an eyewitness. It tells of a rumor that was spread in Hungary and Austria that the Pope and Venice had initiated this campaign. The atrocities of war are reported in detail." (Göllner, Turcica 254) At the end there is a list of noble fallen Hungarians and Bohemians. The title woodcut shows Turkish troops massacring people in a market square, while the city burns around them. To a sense of pathos and horror, the artist has depicted a mother wielding a sword to protect her small children, who clutch at her dress. The full-page woodcut on the final leaf shows Turkish soldiers murdering children. The market square massacre woodcut would later be reused to illustrate an account of the Ottoman occupation of Buda (1541). "The Battle of Mohács (August 29, 1526) was waged between Hungarian forces led by King Louis II and the invading Ottoman forces led by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. The battle marked the effective destruction of the Hungarian monarchy and paved the way for Habsburg and Turkish domination in Hungary. "In order to expand the Ottoman Empire into the heart of Europe, Süleyman realized that he would have to conquer the kingdom of Hungary. The first stage to achieving this goal was the capture of Belgrade (which he accomplished in 1521), allowing Süleyman to use Serbian territory to launch an invasion."(Britannica) Rather than move further into Europe, Süleyman turned to matters in the Mediterranean, where he spent 1522 laying siege to Rhodes, conquering the island in 1523. In the spring of 1526, Süleyman turned once again to Hungary. "The Hungarians knew that an attack was coming but could not win any support from other Christian powers. Süleyman's army made an uncontested crossing of the Drava River on a pontoon bridge, which took five days, while KingLouis waited to face the invaders on a large marshy plain at Mohács. The Hungarians intended to rely upon the shock effect of their charging armored knights, but Süleyman had better balanced forces, including infantry Janissaries armed with arquebuses, sipahi light cavalry, andformidable banks of cannon. "The charge of the Hungarian cavalry caused serious casualties to the Ottoman vanguard, but Süleyman's elite Janissaries pushed back the Hungarians, who were also torn apart by Turkish cannon fire. As the Hungarians fell back, they were outflanked and encircled by the fast-moving Ottoman light cavalry. The Hungarian force was annihilated. King Louis of Hungary was thrown from his horse and killed as he tried to escape the carnage. Süleyman proceeded into Buda (September 10) but then withdrew from the country, taking more than 100,000 captives with him. "The defeat at Mohacs was a disaster that ended the existence of Hungary as an independent united kingdom . A prolonged civil war (1526-38) ultimately resulted in the incorporation of the central and southern two-thirds of Hungary into the Ottoman Empire (1547) and in the establishment of Transylvania and the eastern Hungarian provinces as an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire. "The Ottoman losses amounted to 2,000 out of an army of 60,000; the Hungarian, 18,000 of 35,000."(Britannica). Opera. Phi. Melanchthonis & aliorum . scholijs, annotationibus & novis argumentis illustrata . partim nunc primum publicatis. Adiectis etiam figuris egregiem depictis
Illustrated with 18 full-page woodcuts attributed to Jos Murer (1530-1580). Bound in contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards, 1 of 2 clasps preserved, binding worn and soiled, with small losses to the pigskin at the extremities. Internally a very fresh copy; ink blot in text on leaf f1; upper outer corners of central gatherings with minor dog-earing; a few contemporary notes in Bk. III of the Aeneid. 16th c. ownership entry on front paste-down. With the contemporary inscription: "ex libris Guberti à Salicibus nec non amicorum"("Guibert (or Gilberto?) of Asturias? and friends"). This edition of Vergil's works, with notes "loci communes" by Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), features an introduction by Josse Bade of Asse (aka Jodocus Badius Ascensius) (1462-1535), more than 100 pages of notes on the Bucolics and the Georgics by Johannes Fries (1505-1565) and Christoph Hegendorf (d. 1541), and "arguments" for each book of the Aeneid. In addition to the Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, this edition contains the minor poems of the "Index Vergiliana", various epigrams, and Maffeo Vegio's (1406-1458) conclusion of Vergil's epic, the "Aeneidos Supplementum", the so-called "13th book" of the Aeneid. THIRD EDITION with these woodcuts. The first edition with these illustrations was printed in 1561 at Zürich, also by Froschauer. A second edition was printed in 1563 at Frankfurt by Sigmund Feyerabend. This 1564 Froschauer edition was already underway in 1563 (the date of the colophon.). Le Soleil Au Signe du Lyon d’ou quelques paralleles sont tirez, avec les tres-Chrestien, tres-Iuste, & tres-Victorieux Monarque Louys XIII. Roy de France & de Navarre, en son Entrée triomphante dans sa Ville de Lyon. Ensemble Un sommaire recit de tout ce qui s’est passé de remarquable en ladite Entrée de sa Majesté, & de la plus Illustre Princesse de la terre, Anne d’Austriche, Royne de France & de Navarre, dans ladite Ville de Lyon le 11. Decembre 1622
bound with Reception de tres-chrestien, tres-iuste, et tres-victorieux monarque Louys XIII. Roy de France & de Navarre, premier Comte & Chanoine de l'Eglise de Lyon: et De Tres-chrestienne, Tres-auguste, & Tres-vertueuse Royne Anne d'Austriche: Par Messieurs les Doyen, Chanoines, & Comtes de Lyon, en leur Cloistre & Eglise, le XI. Decembre, M. D. XXII. Lyon: Par Jaques Roussin, 1623 FIRST EDITION OF BOTH WORKS Folio in 4s: 29 x 20 cm. Soleil: Ï1(=A1?) *4 Î4(-Î1) B-R4 (R3 blank) S-X4 Y6 [$3 signed; -*2, *3, D1, G1, H2, K1, L1, M3, P1]. 94 leaves, pp. [10] (title printed in red-and black, blank, 4pp. dedication, 3pp. to the reader, imprimatur) 3-180. [=x, 178] With 12 engraved plates (11 integral with the text), of which 1 is folding (not integral). "Reception": A-G4 H6 [$3 signed; -A1, E2, E3]. 34 leaves, pp. 1-2 (title, blank) 3-67, blank. With 7 engraved plates (3 integral with the text), of which 4 are folding (not integral). Collated complete against the BnF copies. Bound in contemporary parchment (mild soiling and wear, a little rumpled.) On the spine, title in ink manuscript ("L'entrée/ De Louys/ XIII a/ Lione"). Text in fine condition with some very mild toning, occasional spotting, and a few minor stains. A few lvs. (C1/4 second work) lightly browned. A few clean tears repaired, no loss. Small marginal tears to a few lvs., far from the text. Bookplate of Paul and Marianne Gourary to the front paste-down. Ownership signature of "d. Rubto Galilei" to the front paste-down. Two works describing and illustrating the entry of Louis XIII (1601-1643, r. 1610) and his Queen consort Anne of Austria (1601-1666, m. 1615) into Lyon on 11 December 1622. Richly illustrated with engravings by Charles Audran, G. Autgers, Pierre Faber, Grégoire Huret, Philippe de Malley and David van Velchem. This royal tour marked the end of the first Huguenot rebellion, which was resolved by the Treaty of Montpellier, signed 18 October 1622. With scarcely six weeks to prepare, Lyon welcomed the triumphant king and queen - the titles' emphasis (very Christian, very just, very victorious) is telling - and celebrated their reign with pomp and spectacle. Louis XIII is here compared to the sun, a title more usually applied to his son Louis XIV, le roi soleil. The royal entry at Lyon was one of a number of celebratory stops made by the royal couple on the way from Montpellier (where the king had just signed the treaty.) Other regal celebrations were held in Arles (October 30, 1622), Aix (November 3 and 10, 1622), Marseille (November 7, 1622) and Avignon (November 16, 1622). These two related two works describe the entry, the monuments, ceremonies, and festivities. The "Sun in the sign of Lyon" describes the different monuments, composed of triumphal arches, columns, fountains, etc. erected for the occasion. It is illustrated with a vignette on the title with the arms of Lyon, drawn and engraved by Pierre Faber, and with 12 figures, including 11 full page and one folded out of text, by Faber, D. de Mallery, Grégoire Huret, Van Velkhem and G. Autguere; they represent the different monuments described in the work. One of the engravings shows the magnificent fireworks display over the river Saône. The present volume belonged to Ruberto Galilei (Roberto, born 1595), a Lyon-based cousin (fifth, once removed; nevertheless Favaro describes him as "sinceramente affezionato a Galileo") of the renowned scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Ruberto acted as an intermediary for Galileo's foreign correspondence - with Diodati, Peiresc, Mersenne et al. - after his inquisitorial trial in 1633. The cousins also corresponded, especially concerning the movement and publication of books. Ruberto moved from Florence to Lyon as a young man, and so possibly witnessed this joyeuse entrée. [1] An earlier issue of the Reception with a 1622 date (surely a nicety rather than a sign that the work was conceived and published in 20 days) is recorded, but is otherwise identical. [2] Favaro's edition of Galileo's Opere, vol. XVI (1966), letter no. 3193 (p. 262 of the document), now at the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, Filza Favaro A, car. 100. Euphues The Anatomie of Wit: Very pleasant for all Gentlemen to read, and most necessary to remember. Wherein are contained the delights that wit followeth in his youth, by the pleasantnesse of loue: and the happinesse he reapeth in age, by the perfectnesse of wisdom. By Iohn Lylie, Master of Art. Corrected and Augmented. [And] Euphues and his England. Containing his Voyage and Adventures: Mixed with sundry pretty Discourses of honest Loue, the Description of the Country, the Court and the manners of the Ile. Delightfull to be read, and nothing hurtfull to be regarded: wherein there is small offence by lightnes giuen to the wise, and lesse occasion of loosenesse proffered to the wanton. By Iohn Lilie, Master of Arts. Commend it, or amend it
An unsophisticated copy in contemporary blind-ruled sheep (wear to the extremities, small defects at head and tail of spine, upper board with two fractures in the leather, corners bumped. Internally generally fresh. There is marginal staining and a little wear to the edges of the title page and final leaf; the upper margins of the closing gatherings have minor abrasions. Some contemporary under-scoring and other minor blemishes. Provenance: numerous early owners' names on the front flyleaf, including the inscription "Mary Cooper, her booke". John Lyly's celebrated "Euphues", "arguably the first English novel" was published as two separate, closely-associated works, the first "Euphues. The Anatomy of Wit", in 1578; the second "Euphues and his England", in 1580. Enormously popular, the book went through many editions into the 17th c. "John Lyly (1554-1606) was a native of Kent, and, in his day, a noted son of Oxford. His career was one of strenuous effort, ill requited because ill-directed. His nice, fastidious temperament, which marked him off from the roaring section of university wits, seems to have rendered him ineffective in actual life. At Oxford, he missed recognition; his ambition to succeed to the Mastership of the Revels was quietly ignored; while his closing years, passed in penury and neglect, form a saddening sequel to the efforts of one, who, in his time, had adorned the stage, had beautified the conversation of exquisites 'of learned tendency' and had been the fruitful occasion of much wit in others. "The work for which he is famous appeared in two installments. 'Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit' was 'lying bound on the stationers stall' by the Christmas of 1578; 'Euphues and his England', the second part, appeared in 1580. Together, they form an extensive moral treatise, and, incidentally, our first English novel. The whole hangs together by the thinnest of plots, which is, indeed, more a means to an end than an end in itself. Euphues, a young man of Athens, arrives at Naples, where he forms a friendship with young Philautus. He falls in love with Lucilla, the betrothed of Philautus, and is duly jilted by that fickle mistress. "This is all the action of 'The Anatomy of Wit': but the moralizing element is something more considerable. The ancient Eubulus discourses on the follies of youth; Euphues, himself, on the subject of friendship. The complications brought about by the action of Lucilla lead to much bitter moralizing upon fickleness in general, while Euphues, jilted, discusses his soul and indicts 'a Cooling Carde for all Fond Lovers.' Over and above all this, the work contains the hero's private papers, his essays and letters; and opportunities are seized for inveighing against dress, and for discoursing upon such diverse subjects as marriage and travel, education and atheism. In 'Euphues and his England', the scene changes from Italy to England. The two friends, now reconciled, proceed to Canterbury, where they are entertained by one Fidus, a pastoral figure of considerable attractiveness; Philautus soon becomes involved in the toils of love, while Euphues plays the part of a philosophical spectator. The former lays siege to the heart of one whose affections are already bestowed, and so, with philosophy for his comfort, he enters upon the wooing of another, with more auspicious result. This brings the action to a close, and Euphues leaves England, eulogizing the country and the women it contains, and returns forthwith to nurse his melancholy within his cell at Silexedra. "The style, known as Euphuistic, won a following in its day, and has since become one of the most familiar of literary phenomena. Lyly aimed at precision and emphasis, in the first place, by carefully balancing his words and phrases, by using rhetorical questions and by repeating the same idea in different and striking forms. Alliteration, puns and further word play were other devices employed to the same end. For ornament, in the second place, he looked mainly to allusions and similes of various kinds. He alludes to historical personages found in Plutarch and Pliny, to mythological figures taken from Ovid and Vergil. But his most daring ornamentation lies in his wholesale introduction of recondite knowledge; he draws similes from folklore, medicine and magic, above all from the 'Natural History' of Pliny, and this mixture of quaint device and naïve science resulted in a style which appealed irresistibly to his contemporaries. "Apart from its prose style, the 'Euphues' of Lyly exercised considerable influence upon its author's contemporaries. On Shakespeare, to mention only one, its effect is marked. Some of the dramatist's characters, such as his pairs of friends, the sententious old man Polonius and the melancholy philosopher Jacques, recall 'Euphues' in different ways. Verbal resemblances also exist: Shakespeare's utterances on friendship, and his famous bee-passage, place his indebtedness beyond all doubt, even supposing his numerous similes drawn from actual or supposed natural history to be but drafts made upon the common possessions of the age." (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes, Volume III. Renaissance and Reformation, XVI. Elizabethan Prose Fiction. § 3. John Lyly.). 17th EDITION of "Anatomie of Wit"; 19th EDITION of "His England". THE LAST of the 17th c. EDITIONS. Raccolta di cinquanta principali vedute di antichità, tratte dai scavi fatti in Roma in questi ultimi tempi
Bound in late 19th c. or early 20th c. blue marbled paper over boards (spine backed in later blue cloth), wear to extremities, corners bumped. A fine copy with broad margins and only minor blemishes: title and the first few plates lightly foxed; the final three foxed and lightly spotted. The title is lightly soiled and foxed, with a small light stain in lower margin, and a light crease in the inner margin. Fine, dark impressions of the plates. These are among the earliest etchings of Roman monuments created by Luigi Rossini, "the most important graphic illustrator of Rome in the nineteenth century"(Millard) and the last of the great artists to produce large-scale etched views (vedute), plans, and speculative reconstructions of Rome's ancient remains. The first edition of 1817 had only forty-one views, the first of which, an architectural capriccio, served as the title page. The success of the first edition prompted Rossini to produce an additional nine plates and to issue this second edition. Among the nine new etchings are two of the most striking: the view of the Arch of Constantine (46) and the Pantheon (49). The original title plate has been renamed "scena teatrale" and numbered as plate 50. Both editions are rare. A number of these Roman views produced in 1817-1818 served as models for Rossini's larger-scale etchings of the same subjects (issued in 1823); other compositions are unique to this series. Comparison of the smaller plates with the larger series show that Rossini was an accomplished etcher in both formats. Rossini's inspiration was the undisputed master of such images, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and it was he that the young Rossini set out to emulate even as he developed his own artistic style and identity. It was a bold move to invite such explicit comparison between his work and those of Piranesi, but Rossini proved himself to be no slavish pasticheur. Rossini's artistic and philosophical objectives -and therefore the images that he produced- were markedly different from those of Piranesi. His images reflected the new realities of the post-Napoleonic era, and reflected the development of a more modern, scientific archaeology, expressed in extraordinarily beautiful and powerful images. "With his works depicting Rome through the most significant and evocative images, produced over about a half a century of intense activity, Rossini gradually reshaped the face of the city, depicting with acute and objective attention the features of its complex archaeology and its most attractive locations. While remaining within the context of the veduta, Rossini never ceased documenting the archaeological remains with scholarly accuracy, introducing some substantial innovations compared to previous interpretations. By depicting yet again the landscapes and monuments of Rome and its surroundings, while recording the most picturesque and distinctive aspects of its everyday life, his work moved closer to a Romantic vision, while seeking to present an extremely meticulous documentation based on studies of the sources and direct examination of the latest discoveries, illustrating the restoration work being carried out, reconstructing the plans and elevations of buildings and sites, so making him a protagonist of the cultural elaboration of Rome in the early nineteenth-century. "Through his landscape and archaeological views, Rossini interpreted Rome as a privileged place for objective, scholarly and poetic evocations, translated into etchings with the utmost technical virtuosity, and disseminated through the powerful expressive medium of print."(Nicoletta Ossanna Cavadini, 'Rossini Architect and Engraver: from views of antiquities to the Romantic spirit' in "Luigi Rossini, Il Viaggio Segreto", 2014) Note: In 1818 Rossini published his first series of large Roman views under the title "Raccolta di prospettive delle più belle Fabriche di Roma". The work survives in only a few copies, the plates hand-colored and varnished in imitation of Rossini's original water-color drawings. Those plates were re-worked and later re-issued later as "Monumenti più interessanti di Roma dal decino secolo sino al secolo decimottavo". There are two copies of the original hand-colored issue in the U.S. (Morgan, SF State). SECOND EDITION, EXPANDED, WITH NINE NEW PLATES NOT IN THE FIRST EDITION of 1817. Loci Praecipui Theologici. Nunc denuo cura et diligentia summa recogniti, multisque in locis copiose illustrate, Cum appendice disputationis de Coniugio. His additae sunt recens definitiones multarum appellationum, quarum in Ecclesia usus est, traditae ab eodem autore Torgae & Witebergae: Anno 1552. & 1553. Ad calcem huius operis accessit, locorum scripturae in hoc explicatorum, itemque capitum totius libri, nec non rerum atque verborum memorabilium trigeminus Index quam diligentissime conscriptus
Bound in contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over wooden boards (one clasp preserved, light wear and soiling). The text is in excellent condition, with just 2 lvs. (d7-8) lightly spotted, and a small natural paper flaw to the blank upper margin of leaf p6 (just touching the page number). There are a few contemporary annotations in gathering f. Provenance: André Hachette (cat. 1953, no. 85).- Charles von der Elst.- Pierre Berès (catalogue Livres rares. Six siècles de reliures, 2004, no. 46). A superb contemporary blind-stamped pigskin binding, dated 1564 and signed M.O.C., by Thomas Krüger of Wittenberg, with full-length portrait panel stamps of Martin Luther (157 x 89 mm.) and Philip Melanchthon (156 x 90 mm.) based on portraits by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586). A binding bearing only the portrait of Melanchthon on the upper board is reproduced by Mirjam Foot in her article: "A Binding by Thomas Krüger 1573" (The Book Collector, 1981). The Melanchthon panel stamp: Based on Cranach's 1561 woodcut of Melanchthon (Hollstein VI.151.48c iii/vi; Bartsch XI.442.153; Dodgson II.347.31), the panel stamp (EBDB p002950; Haebler I 250, VIII) by Thomas Krüger bears the date 1563 and Krüger's initials. A simplified form of Cranach's device can be seen at the foot of the plate, beneath the scroll with Melanchthon's name. The Cranach emblem, depicting a serpent with upright bat wings holding a ring in its mouth, was granted by Duke Friedrich the Wise to Cranach's father in 1508. While the background in Cranach's woodcut is blank, Krüger has added an elaborate architectural frame with a landscape in the far background, in which the Wittenberg Pfarrkirch can be discerned. The church view was almost certainly inspired by the background on the stamp with the portrait of Luther (see below). Two putti bear shields. One has the arms of Saxony; the other shows Melanchthon's crest, featuring a serpent entwined on a cross, representing the bronze serpent made by Moses to cure the Israelites of poisonous snakebites during their forty years in the wilderness. The engraver has modified Cranach's portrait by replacing the closed book in Melanchthon's hand with an open one, in which is written one of Melanchthon's epigrams ("Nullius est felix conatus etutilis unquam, Consilium si non detque iuvetque Deus"). The Luther panel stamp: The undated panel stamp (EBDB p002949; Haebler I 250, VII), signed with Krüger's initials, is based on a ca. 1546 woodcut by Cranach. The Luther and Melanchthon stamps were clearly conceived of as a pair. As with the Melanchthon stamp, Cranach's serpent device can be seen at the foot of the plate, beneath the scroll with Luther's name; once again, Krüger has set Luther within an elaborate architectural frame in which putti bear shields, this time with the arms of Wittenberg and Luther's crest (the "Luther rose"). The landscape in the far background, with a view of Wittenberg, corresponds to the one in Cranach's woodcut. The engraver has modified the book held by Luther, opening it to reveal the text of 2 Corinthians 12:9 ("virtus mea in infirmitate perficitur") and Isa 30:15 ("In silentio et spe erit fortitudo vestra"). The text: "You cannot find anywhere a book which treats the whole of theology so adequately as the 'Loci Communes' do. Next to Holy Scripture, there is no better book." -Martin Luther Philip Melanchthon's epochal "Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum Seu Hypotyposes Theologicae" ("Fundamental Topics of Theology, or a Theological Framework") was the first Protestant work of systematic theology. While teaching at Wittenberg, Melanchthon "came under the influence of Martin Luther and began to study theology. The proclamation of God's grace freely given became the enduring mainstay of his life. As this experience penetrated his intellectual world, it led him to develop the reformation's message systematically. Melanchthon's most important work, the 'Loci Communes Theologici', through which he created not only the first dogmatic of the Lutheran reformation but also a new genre in theological literature, arose out of the application of scriptural authority to his work on the Bible itself. "At Wittenberg, part of the curriculum for theologians still included lecturing on the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Melanchthon wanted to circumvent this normative structure for dogmatics and to offer instead a scripturally based exposition of doctrine. For this purpose he employed an ancient method, recommended by Desiderius Erasmus, of noting the basic concepts- 'topoi', or 'loci communes'- of a text in order to appropriate more fully its content. Whereas Erasmus continued to impose upon the text his own list of 'loci communes', Melanchthon required that the 'loci' and their organization arise out of the text itself."(Encyclopedia of the Reformation) What is remarkable -and new- about the system employed by Melanchthon in the "Loci" is that it is the first system of doctrinal positions drawn solely from the Word of God. In his preface to the first edition, Melanchthon gives a list of the topics -"the principal heads of theological science"- which he considered fundamental to the doctrines of faith and piety, and upon which his entire scheme hung: God, Unity, Trinity, Creation, Man, the strength of Man, Sin, the fruit of Sin, Vice, Punishment, Law, Promises, Renewal Through Christ, Grace, The fruit of Grace, Faith, Hope, Charity, Predestination, Sacramental signs, the estates of Man, Civil Offices, Bishops, Condemnation, and Blessedness. "The book marks an epoch in the history of theology. It is an exposition of the leading doctrines of sin and grace, repentance and salvation. It is clean, fresh, thoroughly Biblical, and practical. Its main object is to show that man cannot be saved by works of the law or by his own merits but only by the free grace of God in Christ as revealed in the Gospel. It presents the living soul of divinity in contrast to the dry bones of degenerate scholasticism."(Sch Racolta [sic] di varie cose spettanti all’Artiglieria necessarie per la Campagna in Torino Luglio 1749
Bound in contemporary full calf, double ruled boards, gilt decorations and title to spine. With an allegorical title illustration in black ink with the title written in brown ink within the shield. The text is written in brown ink. Illustrated with 17 full-page drawings in black ink. Text-block edges red. A fine, unpublished artillery manuscript describing strategies, battle formations, siege tactics, construction of fortified parapets, chemical recipes for making explosive projectiles and incendiary devices, precision targeting, etc. The manuscript was produced in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, more specifically, in the Duchy of Savoy, which included Genoa and had its capital at Turin. Because of its strategic military content, the manuscript was probably made and circulated in very few copies and distributed only within the highest ranks of the Piemontese military. The manuscript is known in two other copies, both produced for earlier campaigns: one for "per la campagnia l'anno 1740", now in the Bibliothèque de l'École militaire, Paris; the other "per la campagnia l'anno 1741", now in the library of the Duke of Savoy (see below for bibliographical references.) A handwritten note in our copy, dated 1882, on the verso of the front fly-leaf, compares this copy to the one in the Library of the Duke of Genoa: "Nella Biblioteca di S[ua]. A[lteza]. R[eale]. il Duca di Genova trovasi altra Copia col n° 438 del 1741 la quale salvo maggior sesto, la diversa paginazione e la mancanza della tavola della pag. 132. è a questa identica" ("In the Library of His Royal Highness the Duke of Genoa there is another copy with the number 438 dated 1741 which, except for the larger size, the different pagination and the lack of the drawing on page 132 is identical to this one".). Note Overo Memorie Del Mvseo Di Lodovico Moscardo Nobile Veronese, Accademico Filarmonico, dal medesimo descritte et in Trè Libri distinte. Nel primo si discorre delle cose anitche; le quali in detto Museo si trovano. Nel secondo delle Pietre, Minerali, e Terre. Nel terzo de Corali, Conchiglie, Animali, Frutti, & altre cose in quello contenute. Consecrate all’ Altezza Serenissima Di Francesco Duca Di Modena E Reggio
An excellent, crisp copy bound in 17th c. speckled calf, spine richly tooled in gold, with very discreet repairs to the end-caps and only light wear. A crisp copy with minor blemishes: Small stain to upper corner of first two lvs., a smaller one to upper margin of lvs. A1-3, leaf V3 with printer's fingerprints in margin, sm. stain at head of 1st index leaf, a few marginal paper flaws, edges sprinkled red and green. 1. Bookplate of the statesman, bibliophile, and collector Nicolas-Joseph Foucault (1643-1721), first Marquis de Magny, who commissioned archaeological excavations at the Ancient Baths of Alauna in Valognes. 2. Bookplate of the Earls of Macclesfield. The Museo Moscardo: A fine copy of this catalogue of the celebrated collection of natural history specimens, archaeological remains, and ethnographic objects, assembled by the Veronese Count Lodovico Moscardo. Moscardo's museum catalogue, like those of his contemporaries Ferdinando Cospi and Manfredo Settala, is a valuable record of the collecting strategy and tastes of an Italian collector in the first half of the 17th century. Moreover, Moscardo's catalogue serves to document the survival of one of the earliest private museum collections in Italy, that of Francesco Calzolari, part of which Moscardo obtained around 1642 and added to his own collection. Moscardo continued to collect at least until 1672. The collection was seen by Ray in 1663 and by Gilbert Burnet in 1685 and it continued to draw visitors into the 18th c. In the early 19th c., a large part of the collection was obtained -as part of the dowry of Moscardo's granddaughter, Teresa Moscardo- by the Miniscalchi family of Verona. Today the extant specimens can be found in the museum of the Miniscalchi Foundation in Verona. Moscardo's catalogue is notable for the degree to which the collector himself participated in its production. He not only assembled the collection and wrote the catalogue but he also engraved most of the illustrations himself. Several of the plates are new versions of plates originally made for the catalogue of Calzolari's museum (1622). Moscardo used them to illustrate the very same specimens , which Moscardo had acquired from the Calzolari heirs. The catalogue is divided into three books. The first book describes the antiquities contained in the collection: marble and bronze statuary, coins, urns, stele, lamps, votive objects, seals, lapidary inscriptions and jewelry. The section also includes Egyptian ushabtis, "bones of giants" (actually Mastodon fossils), and some Renaissance medals. Although he relies on published scholarship when writing his catalogue, the objects themselves, which he analyzes and described based on their composition, stylistics, and relation to each other, supply the raw material for his text. He describes magic votives and amulets, phallic fertility charms, modes of ancient dress, the development of writing materials and the differences between Indian and Chinese ink, etc. The second book discusses at length the stones, minerals, soils, and other objects that came from the earth. Included are descriptions of carnelians, topaz, sapphire, ruby, jasper, amber, agate, amethyst, beryl, onyx, opal, cat's eye, nephrite, turquoise, malachite, Bloodstone, Beozar, magnets, mica, rock crystal, obsidian, asbestos, gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, quicksilver, iron, antimony, various earths from Elba, Silesia, Strigonia, and Japan, sulfur, nitre, alum, salt, etc. The final section of this chapter concerns petrified objects (fossils) with illustrations of fossilized marine animals including fish. Here again, Moscardo is hard at work on developing typologies. One of the most fascinating, neolithic arrow heads and spear points, the so-called "cerauniae" (the "thunder stones"). The third section provides descriptions of corals, shells, animals, and fruit, including images of preserved aquatic creatures (such as turtles, crocodiles, a sting ray, a swordfish, a seahorse, a shark, and even the mythical basilisk), fruits, seeds, pods, beans, gums and ointments, various horns, Indian shoes, and at the end a large assault catapult. There are a number of brief essays on subjects such as horn of the rhinoceros, the Egyptian method of preserving mummies, musical instruments, paintings and drawings. The presence of musical instruments is to be expected; Moscardo was a music lover and member of the Accademia Filarmonica. While the precise location of Moscardo's house is unknown, we do know that the mansion comprised four adjacent buildings. Fortunately, the catalogue gives some details as to the collection's arrangements. Fifty of the inscriptions, for instance, were displayed in the cortile and garden. Ragguaglio delle Antichità e Rarità che si conservano nella Galleria Mediceo-Imperiale di Firenze. Parte I [all published] Opera Di Giuseppe Bianchi Custode Della Medesima.
An exceptional copy bound in contemporary carta rustica. A few leaves creased, boards very lightly soiled. The text is adorned with attractive woodcut initials and headpieces. Printed on thick, crisp paper with broad margins; a number leave with the lower edges untrimmed. A crisp, bright copy in original three-quarter calf and speckled paper over boards, spine with floral ornaments. The text is adorned with attractive woodcut initials and headpieces. First edition of the first guide to one of the world's most important museums. This guide to the Medici collections of the Uffizi Gallery was written by the museum's first custodian, who had been appointed after the gallery's conversion to a public institution under the terms established by the last of the Medici, the Palatine Electrix Anna Maria Ludovica, in 1737. The custodian, Giuseppe Bianchi, is a notorious figure. He was later found to have robbed the Uffizi of works of precious metal, which he melted down and sold. He was condemned to exile for his perfidy. (See Barrochi and Bertelà, "Danni e furti di Giuseppe Bianchi in Galleria, Labyrinthos 13/16 (1988-89), 321-336.) Bianchi's guide, published in the same year that the British Museum opened to the public, is an important record of the disposition and scope of the newly "public" collections in the period prior to their dramatic reorganization by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine (1780-82). In some instances, the notices in the guide are the earliest extant record for some works in the collections. The portable and scholarly guide is similar in format and composition to Pasquale Massi's 1792 guide to the Vatican Museums, which Bianchi's guide predates by a generation. Bianchi prefaces his tour with a history of the construction of the Uffizi palace, designed and begun by Vasari in 1560 and completed -following Vasari's design- by Alfonso Parigi and Bernardo Buontalenti in 1581. This is followed by a description of the various elements that make up the entire palace complex. The formal guide to the galleries begins with a detailed description of the decorative program of the frescoed ceilings and the series of portraits that line the walls beneath them. This is followed by descriptions and commentaries on each of the 62 statues and 92 busts housed in the galleries in this period. Francesco I was the first Medici to add ancient marbles to the newly completed Uffizi, and these ancient sculptures were juxtaposed with contemporary Renaissance masterpieces. Thus we find in Bianchi's guide the famous Medici Venus, the Niobe group, Bandonelli's Laocöon, and Michelangelo's Bacchus. The sarcophagus of Hippolytus is absent, since it was still in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in 1759. Next, Bianchi takes us into the Camera dei Pittori. Yet, here he is unable to give a comprehensive discussion. This is due, in large part, to the sheer size of the collection but also to the fact that the painting collection has changed so much over the years, some of the paintings having been transferred to the Pitti Palace, others that formerly hung in the Palace having come to the Gallery, and others still having been given as gifts to great lords, or used to decorate villas. Moreover, the paintings are in many media: oil, tempera, fresco, and encaustic. Bianchi decides to focus on the collection of artist self-portraits, which are divided into the three principal schools (arrived at by the consensus of the most famous scholars of the art of painting): Romana, Lombarda, and Oltramontana. Here we find the famous self-portrait of Raphael. From here we pause briefly in the Camera delle Porcellane before entering the Camera degl' Idoli with its collection of 300 Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian bronzes, which Bianchi considers in detail. Next we enter the Camera delle Arti, where we find paintings by Raphael, Andrea del Sarto, Leonardo, Botticelli, Mantegna, and Fra Angelico. In the Camera de' Fiamminghi are housed 140 paintings by northern European artists: Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Van Dyck, Brueghel, and Callot, among others. The German Cabinet: The center of the Camera delle Arti is occupied by a wondrous machine, for which Bianchi provides a two-page description. It is a magnificent octagonal cabinet, over nine feet tall, incorporating a clock, a pneumatic organ, and moving figures in silver. The architectural details are all composed of granatiglia, an ebony-like luxury hardwood, and the surfaces of the cabinet are inlaid with precious stone, including lapis, jasper, and verde antico. The cabinet is adorned with painted scenes of the Old and New Testaments, which are rendered so minutely and with such fine skill that they are believed to be by the school of Brueghel. Within the cabinet is a machine that rotates, showing four scenes: birds and arabesques executed in stone-inlay; a wax relief of the deposition ("the work of the immortal Buonarroti"); an amber relief of Jesus and the Apostles; and an amber crucifixion scene. The final ornament of the machine is a mirror box that produces an infinite number of reflections. Bianchi tells us that the cabinet was made in Germany "around a century ago" and was purchased by Grand Duke Ferdinando II (1610-1670). The sixth camera houses mathematical instruments and a pair of celestial and terrestrial globes. Among the marvels here are an enormous magnet and a huge burning mirror. It was with the addition of the mathematical and scientific collections that the Uffizi began to take on the aspect of a wunderkammer. Next we enter the heart of the museum, the Tribuna, the octagonal room that houses the most important treasures of the Uffizi. Bianchi begins with individual descriptions of the 14 marble statues, among them the Medici Venus, the Wrestlers, the Dancing Satyr, the Arrotino, and the infant Hercules. After a brief description of the room itself, designed by Bernardo Buontalenti for Ferdinando III, Bianchi lists the artists whose paintings adorn the room: C Architectura Recreationis. [and] Architectura Civilis. [and] Architectura Privata
ARCHITECTURE. Furttenbach, Joseph (1591 - 1667) A sammelband of three of Furttenbach's major architectural treatises. With 3 engraved frontispieces, printed titles in red and black, and a total of 89 folding plates of various sizes (the largest of them 370 x 300 mm.) showing residences, civic structures, palaces, churches, elaborate gardens and grottoes, pavilions, and theaters. All works with elaborate decorative woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials, German text in Gothic type throughout. The plates by various engravers, largely after Furttenbach himself. Exceptional copies, complete with all plates, the text and plates on the whole bright and crisp. Bound in contemporary full vellum (lightly soiled, minor wear to extremities) with a decorative title label (gilt-tooled with citron wash.) All plates are folding, having been tipped in on guards at the time of binding so that they might fold out easily, avoiding tears. A few plate edges are a bit curled and dust soiled where they extend outside of the text block; there is scattered light foxing in the upper margins and a few small stains; a few plates have discoloration along the fold. The only other blemishes are on the two final plates of the third work, each of which is lightly browned along one fold and has one small hole, within the plate but not affecting the image. Provenance: 1. With the engraved armorial bookplate, "Bibliotheca Velseriana", possibly that of Carolus Velser (1635-1697). 2. Later stamp (Lugt 1114) of "G. W. Günther, Nuremberg" at foot of titles and on binding and with his signature on rear paste-down (Lugt 1115). 3. Bookplate of Emily, Marchioness of Landsdowne (1819-1895). The practicing architect Joseph Furttenbach (1591-1667), "author of the lone series of architectural textbooks to appear in Germany during the Thirty Years' War", was heavily influenced by Italian architecture, which he studied during his 10-year sojourn in that country. Upon his return to his native Ulm, he adapted Italian principles to his designs for German buildings, including his own townhouse (which he described in his "Architectura Privata"), with its famous garden and private museum-library. "Furttenbach is a fascinating figure. He left Germany at the age of sixteen for a ten-year stay in Italy, where he studied- among other things-stage design under Giulio Parigi in Florence. While in Italy he decided to become an architect and merchant, and he brought both interests back to his native Ulm in 1621. Ten years later he became a municipal architect; in 1636 he became a senator. In addition to practicing architecture he was also active as a garden designer, pyrotechnician, and military engineer. All of these pursuits found an outlet in his numerous books, which began in 1626 with a description of his Italian travels and appeared regularly until the 166os."(Millard) I. Architectura Civilis (1628): "Furttenbach's 'Architectura civilis' (1628) is his most significant contribution to architectural theory. The preface starts with a lengthy history of this 'noble art of architecture,' which, after a review of classical traditions, focuses upon 'Italians of noble Roman descent.' His architectural preferences are also clearly apparent, as 'it is well known that in Italy the most exquisite, the most artistically rich and satisfying, and the strongest buildings are to be found than in any other place in the whole of Europe.' From this thesis, Furttenbach goes on to consider architecture under three rubrics: palaces, pleasure pavilions, and gardens; churches and chapels; and hospitals. His goal is to bring the principles of symmetry and correct proportion to the North. Like many of his sixteenth-century predecessors, Furttenbach saw his task as one of continuing the line of the humanist Renaissance tradition."(Millard) II. Architectura Recreationis (1640): Rebuilding after War In this remarkable book on civil architecture and advanced theater design, Furttenbach presents house and garden designs for various tiers of society. Book I: designs for the merchant class. Book II, for the nobility. Book III. palaces for princes (it is here that the designs for private theaters are described.) Book IV. civic buildings (a town hall, a customs house, and a workhouse.) The gardens, with their elaborate grottoes, intricate water features and geometrically-planned garden beds, are far more elaborate than those described in his "Architectura Civilis". Depicted are elaborate mazes, small kitchen gardens, walled gardens and parterres, and grottoes outfitted with water features. The title reflects the societal vision that undergirds his architectural program. "[Furttenbach's] repeated remarks on the pressing task of 'recreation' - in the double sense of recovery and reconstruction - are to be understood as clear reactions to the wartime and post-wartime situation in Ulm, Swabia, and the Empire in general. In a letter to the founders of the Zürich Citizen's Library, he advertises his 1640 text 'Architectura recreationis' as 'instruction for properly rebuilding the demolished, devastated, and burned civilian buildings, after the imminent peace.' At the beginning of the book, he writes "In the conviction that the structures and images which follow here. will provide the still-living but scared half-to-death people with a guide to recreation and the return of cheerful spirits (in particular, however, a guide for rebuilding the houses, castles, palaces, gardens and everything else necessary for sheltering and mending the people that were inauspiciously destroyed by the tempestuous Mars)."(Hole Rößler, Technologies of Theater, p. 370) An important aspect of "Architectura Recreationis" is Furttenbach's in-depth discussion of the construction of modern theaters, skills that he had mastered while studying at the private academy of master stage designer Giulio Parigi in Florence in 1617. During his time in Italy, Furttenbach worked as a theatre architect, stage engineer, and scenographer. He brought all of this Theatrum Botanicum: The theater of plants.: Or, An herball of a large extent: containing therein a more ample and exact history and declaration of the physicall herbs and plants that are in other authours, encreased by the accesse of many hundreds of new, rare, and strange plants from all the parts of the world, with sundry gummes, and other physicall materials, than hath beene hitherto published by any before; and a most large demonstration of their natures and vertues. Shevving vvithall the many errors, differences, and oversights of sundry authors that have formerly written of them; and a certaine confidence, or most probable conjecture of the true and genuine herbes and plants. Distributed into sundry classes or tribes, for the more easie knowledge of the many herbes of one nature and property, with the chiefe notes of Dr. Lobel, Dr. Bonham, and others inserted therein. / Collected by the many yeares travaile, industry, and experience in this subject, by Iohn Parkinson apothecary o
HERBALS. BOTANY. MEDICINE. Parkinson, John (1567-1650) Illustrated with an additional, pictorial title page engraved by William Marshall (fl. 1617-1650) and 2716 woodcuts of plants. Bound in fine late seventeenth-century black morocco, paneled gilt, with a central lozenge featuring acorns and large scrolling tools at the corners, spine gilt in compartments, gilt red morocco labels, endcaps neatly restored, the leather along the hinges worn. Complete with the terminal errata leaf; bifolium 4C3-4 apparently supplied to rectify a binding error in which lvs. 4C2 and 4C5 were bound in twice (manuscript note to that effect); eighteenth- or early 19th century ownership inscription to each volume of "R. James", with scattered annotations in his hand throughout (adding Latin names and some cross-references). Clean marginal tears (no loss) to lvs. F4, Ttt5, and 5G6; clean tear in text (no loss) to leaf Vvv5. A handful of leaves lightly toned; occ. rust spots (with one tiny hole on leaf Nn4 and another on leaf Nnnn6; slightly larger rust holes on 6R4-6, one on each leaf). Nnnn5, Vvvv5-6 marginal dampstain. Second volume with some light toning and some shine-through from the woodcuts. The gardener and apothecary John Parkinson (1567-1650) received the title of Royal Apothecary from King James I. Later, Charles I appointed him as his chief botanist. "Throughout his long working life, John Parkinson earned his living and reputation as an apothecary, preparing and dispensing plant-based and other medicines from his shop on Ludgate Hill, as well as growing and cultivating the plants that were the essential tools of his trade on a substantial plot in Long Acre near Covent Garden, further outside the London city walls to the west."(Jill Francis, John Parkinson: Gardener and Apothecary of London, p. 229) "Parkinson's 'Theatrum' was the largest herbal in English to date; it was also the last great medicinally-based plant study, by an author who thought of himself as first and foremost an apothecary. Altogether 2,716 woodblocks were individually cut for this massive herbal, which describes more than 4,000 plants, most of them with medicinal properties. Parkinson had given notice of his intention to compile an herbal in his 'Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris' of 1629, but was delayed by the publication of the second Johnson edition of 'Gerard's Herball' in 1636. This delay meant that Parkinson's work had time to grow much larger than originally planned, and on publication it included about 1,000 more plants than Gerard's, and describes many species not previously recorded."(Tomasi, Oak Spring Flora, p. 160) "[The herbal] was a monumental work drawing on Parkinson's 50 years of experience of growing and working with plants. Although working within a traditional genre, Parkinson's great herbal was firmly rooted in the new empirical methods of scientific observation and experiment. "According to Parkinson, [earlier writers of herbals, such as William Turner] presumed a knowledge of the new plants arriving from overseas - often as little more than seeds, roots or dried specimens -but they cannot possibly have understood or seen for themselves the nature of the plant. As he writes elsewhere, 'some of these errors are ancient, and continued by long tradition, and others are of later invention, and therefore more to be condemned'. Parkinson, on the other hand, actually took the seeds, bulbs and roots and planted them in his own garden in Long Acre to observe how they grew and what they looked like. Some he received via fellow gardeners: for instance, his friend John Tradescant sent him a root of Indian Moly to plant in his garden. On another occasion, in 1608, Parkinson commissioned the plant hunter William Boel to seek out for him new species of plants while travelling in Spain and he returned with over 200 different kinds of seeds. Parkinson wrote that 'by sowing them [I] saw the faces of a great many excellent plants'. It was in this way, by careful scientific method, that he built up his extensive knowledge of plants and flowers which he then applied to both his work as an apothecary and to his gardening. "[By the late 16th c.], curious and extraordinary plants were arriving on English shores from all over the world. In 1597, John Gerard described many plants in his Herball that he had obtained from 'forren places: including ginger 'digged up' from 'Domingo in the Indies'; tulips, that 'strange and forrein fl.oure: from the Middle East; crocuses from Spain and Italy; potatoes and tobacco from the Americas. "But just three decades later, John Parkinson writes of Gerard that 'since his dates we have had many more varieties than he ever heard of . as may be perceived by the store I have here produced'. Already, the choice of plants available to the apothecary and to the gardener was far greater than it had been at the end of the previous century, and Parkinson saw it as an obligation to pass on his new-found knowledge through his books: 'For I have always held it a thing unfit, to conceal or bury that knowledge God hath given, and not to impart it'."(Jill Francis, "John Parkinson: Gardener and Apothecary of London", in "Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine", Ch. 12, p. 229-243). Lucubrationes, ab innumeris mendis repurgatae. Utopiae libri II. Progymnasmata. Epigrammata. Ex Lucinao conversa quaedam. Declamatio Lucianicae respondens. Epistolae. Quibus additae sunt duae aliorum Epistolae, de vita, moribus & morte Mori
More, Thomas, Saint (1478-1535) With the woodcut illustration of the island of Utopia. A fine copy in 16th c. English calf (re-cased, small repairs, later gold lettering on spine, endpapers renewed. One of the original pastedowns- the leaf from an early English almanac -is visible on the inner rear board.) An excellent copy, the vast majority of the text very fresh, with just some very minor faults: inner margin of title page repaired (far from the text), light stain along top blank edge of first 4 lvs, slight marginal fraying to first 3 lvs., small stain on leaf p8, very light dampstain to the final three gatherings, very small marginal tears to final 3 lvs. The woodcut illustration of the Island of Utopia is on leaf d3. Printer's device on final leaf, verso. Bookplate: "William Salkeld, Esq.", possibly the Serjeant-at-law and law reporter of that name (1671-1715). First edition of the collected Latin works of Sir Thomas More, including the "Utopia" illustrated with a full-page woodcut map. Among the letters published here for the first time is a letter to Martin Dorpius in which More defends Erasmus' translation of the New Testament from the Greek, thus clearly siding with the enlightened "new learning". It also contains a letter from Erasmus to Ulrich von Hutten which contains details of More's physical appearance. There are 9 letters from More to Erasmus, 1 of which concerns the portrait that Erasmus sent to More so that he could always be with him (See "Gifts for an absent friend" below.) The full-page illustration of the Island of Utopia is based on Ambrosius Holbein's woodcut from the 1518 Froben edition. "Utopia" begins with More's encounter with Raphael Hythloday (whose name means 'teller of tall tales'), a traveler who has just returned from voyages with Amerigo Vespucci. Hythloday tells More of a distant island called Utopia, where all property is held in common ownership, where six hours a day are devoted to work and the rest to recreation, where gold and silver are used not as currency but as the material for making shackles and chamber pots, and slaves (criminals and prisoners of war) are treated fairly. In its geography and topography, the island bears a striking resemblance to England. There are fifty-four city-states on the island, perhaps mirroring the number of shires in England and Wales (plus London) in More's time, and all are identical in languages, customs, and laws and similar in size, layout, and appearance. "More positioned his country somewhere in the New World (or, at least beyond the limits of the currently known world), for he states that his narrator, Raphael Hythlodaeus, participated in the last three of Amerigo Vespucci's four voyages. On the final voyage, Hythlodaeus did not come home with Vespucci; rather, he continued his explorations and ultimately discovered Utopia, where he lived for five years before, miraculously, returning to Europe on a Portuguese vessel. Hythlodaeus's descriptions of his residence in Utopia provide the heart of the piece."(Delaney) Gifts for an absent friend: The Portraits of Erasmus and Gillis: The volume also includes Thomas More's letters to Peter Gillis (in whose garden More had conceived of the "Utopia") and Erasmus, in which he thanks his friends for the portraits of themselves that they had sent to More as gifts. The two men had commissioned the leading Antwerp painter of the day, Quentin Matsys, to paint the two portraits as a dyptich. The idea behind the gift being that, through these portraits, Erasmus and Gillis could always be close to their friend. More received the paintings in October 1517 at Calais (where he was on embassy for Henry VIII.) "More wrote from Calais to thank each donor, asking each to show his letter to the other. He surely took his new treasure with him when he returned to London in December. More's letter to Erasmus acknowledges receipt of the diptych (tabula duplex), praises the artist's handiwork and rejoices at his own good luck in having such friends. His letter to Gillis encloses a brace of Latin epigrams, one in elegiac couplets and another in hexameters, which he has made in honor of the gift. Gillis is to pass these on to Erasmus if he thinks them fit for such eyes; otherwise he is to burn them. In the first, the diptych is the speaker: 'I bear witness that Erasmus and Gillis are as dear friends as were Castor and Pollux long ago. More is sad to be parted from them, though affection joins them to him as closely as to himself. In turn they were sad that their absent friend should miss them. An affectionate letter brings More their inward thoughts, but I bring their outward appearance.' "In the second, longer, epigram More represents himself as speaking. Anyone, he says, will recognize the sitters, even though he has never seen them, for one [Gillis] is holding a letter addressed to himself, and the other [Erasmus] is actually writing his own name. If this did not give Erasmus away, the titles written on the books in the portrait would do so: they are famous the world over. Quentin, the rival of Apelles, ought to have entrusted such images to a medium more enduring than wood, if he wished to make certain that his own name would endure. What a price posterity would pay for such a picture! The letter goes on to praise Matsys for his skill, especially in his accurate imitation, on the letter in Gillis's hand, of More's own handwriting. 'Unless', he says, 'either of you has some other use for the letter, send it back to me. Put up beside the picture it will make it seem more wonderful than ever'. In a later letter to Erasmus, still from Calais, on 25th October, More renews his thanks for the gift and in another of 5th November, to the same from the same city, he mentions the diptych again and retails the judgment of Cuthbert Tunstal, friend, fellow-ambassador and later his Bishop, on his verses. "Of Thomas More's letter to Gillis with the verses only one manuscript survives. This is not autograph, but a transcript by an aman Phonurgia Nova sive Conjugium mechanico-physicum artis & naturae paranympha phonosophia concinnatum. quâ universa sonorum natura, proprietas, vires effectuúm[que] prodigiosorum causæ, novâ & multiplici experimentorum exhibitione enucleantur : instrumentorum acusticorum, machinarúm[que] ad naturæ prototypon adaptandarum, tum ad sonos ad remotissima spatia propagandos, tum in abditis domorum recessibus per occultioris ingenii machinamenta clam palámue sermocinandi modus & ratio traditur, tum denique in bellorum tumultibus singurlaris hujusmodi organorum usus, & praxis per nouam phonologiam describitur
ACOUSTICS. PHYSICS. Kircher, Athanasius (1602-1680) Bound in contemporary stiff vellum (small repairs to foot of the spine, re-cased, endpapers renewed.) Internally, this copy is in fine condition with only minor faults as follows: half-title soiled, small wormholes in first four lvs., a peppering of small wormholes to final four index lvs. and final blank leaf. Marginal hole (not affecting text) to leaf B3, margins of portrait leaf foxed and with light stain at foot. The volume was re-cased, probably to remove a second, slim work (judging by the size of the overlapping vellum fore-edges of the binding.) Provenance: Engraved armorial bookplate of Augustin Erath (1648-1719), German Augustinian Canon, theologian, translator. The "Phonurgia" is illustrated with an added engraved allegorical title by Georg Andreas Wolfgang (1631-1716) after Felix Cheurier, an engraved title vignette, an engraved portrait of Emperor Leopold I by Wolfgang after Franz Herman, two engraved plates, seventeen engravings and numerous woodcut diagrams and illustrations in the text, musical notation, ornamental woodcut head- and tail-pieces, and decorative initials. Among the illustrations are Michele Todini's "claviorganum" (one of the most technologically advanced keyboards of Kircher's time), Kircher's own musical invention, the "Aeolian Harp", and the invention that inspired the book, Kircher's "Speaking Trumpet" (the megaphone), shown at the shrine of St. Eustace in Monterella. Various chambers with peculiar acoustical properties are also depicted, such as a Vitruvian amphitheater, the courtyard at the Villa Simonetta in Milan and the "ears" of the Tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse. There is also a depiction of one of Kircher's "talking statues", his 17th century intercom. "The 'Phonurgia Nova' is, in part, Kircher's response to Sir Samuel Morland (1625-95), a fellow of the Royal Society of London, who claimed.to have invented the megaphone. Numerous testimonies from Kircher's admirers, such as James Alban Gibbs and Gaspar Schott, are appended to the work defending Kircher's claim as the inventor of the tuba stentorophonica, as Morland called it. Kircher had indeed written extensively on the device in his 'Musurgia' and had been using the 'speaking trumpet' for years at the shrine of Mentorella to call people to services. The 'Phonurgia' treats the science and applications of sound amplification and echoes. It was the first book published in Europe devoted entirely to acoustics." (Merrill). "The importance that the Jesuits placed on sensory experience as part of worship had a significant impact on Kircher's treatment of music. Within the devotional framework, music was valued precisely because of its capacity to move the passions, to produce strong emotional effects that under properly controlled conditions were designed to ravish the soul and lead the faithful closer to the divine. Indeed, Kircher declared that the goal of all music was to move the affections, and this belief goes a long way toward explaining his interest in classifying all the various emotional or affective states that music can imitate. Kircher's was the first systematic account of the 'doctrine of affections' which underpinned early opera and oratorio, and was one of the fundamental assumptions of later Baroque composers such as Bach and Handel."(Penelope Gouk, "Making Music, Making Knowledge: The Harmonious Universe of Athanasius Kircher"). La Grande Danse macabre des hommes et des femmes historiée et Renouvelée de vieux Gaulois, en langage le plus poly de nôtre tems
[Dance of Death] Illustrated with a half-page title-woodcut and 59 large woodcuts in the text, Bound in fine 20th cent. green morocco. A fine, fresh copy, with the margins cut very close, occasional shaving a headline, page number, or the text (without loss of sense.) This copy conforms with that in la bibliothèque de Troyes, which dates this edition to ca. 1700. The Dyson-Perrins (1864-1958) copy. One of the earliest examples of the pictorial cycle and poem known as the Danse Macabre was painted between August 1424 and Lent 1425 in the arcades of the Cimetière des Saints-Innocents (Cemetery of the Holy Innocents) in Paris. These arcades, constructed as charniers to house bones from earlier mass burials, were demolished in 1669, along with their frescoes. Woodcuts of the Danse copied from the Paris fresco, along with the 67 verses that accompanied the images, were first printed by Guy Marchant at Paris in 1485, with woodcuts designed by Pierre le Rouge. While there were no women in the original Danse, in 1486, Marchant published an all-female version, "La Danse Macabre des Femmes". In 1486, Marchant united these two texts in the two-volume"Miroer Salutaire". While Marchant followed the sequence from the Cimetière des Saints-Innocents, he introduced numerous changes, adding new pictorial elements and verses, including 20 additional dancers and the woodcut of the four skeleton musicians. From the 16th through the 18th centuries, editions of the Danse appeared outside of Paris, printed -with various changes- by French provincial printers in Lyon, Rouen, and Troyes. Over the years, the woodblocks used to print the illustrations in the various Paris editions, worn or damaged from repeated use (and in some instances, lost) were re-cut, with the images reproduced with varying degrees of fidelity to the originals. The printing history of the Danse in Troyes began in 1493, when Pierre le Rouge's woodblocks were acquired by his nephew, Nicolas le Rouge, who printed editions of the text into the 1530s. It is in Troyes that the woodcuts were first copied, and further changes were introduced by successive printers. In 1610, the Troyes printer Noël Moreau, began printing editions of the Danse, using copies of the woodcuts from the Parisian edition published by Marchant, 1490. Moreau added several new images at this point, including the Black man blowing a horn and carrying a spear. According to Mortimer, Moreau also used several original 15th c. blocks in this edition, e.g. (p. 26) the Punishment of the Sin of Luxury (also used in the "Compost et kalendrier des bergiers" of 1497.) and one of the Occupations of the Months (May) from the "Compost" of 1499. In 1641, Nicolas Oudot's son (Nicolas Oudot II) printed a new edition, using Moreau's woodcuts. The last Oudot edition, with the text largely re-written, was printed by Nicolas II's son and widow in 1729, under the title "La Grande Danse Macabée (sic!)". Already in the late 15th c., editions of the Danse had begun to include supplemental texts. Those included in this edition are: "Le débat du corps et de l'ame", "La complainte de l'ame damnée", "L'exhortation de bien vivre et de bien mourir", "La vie du mauvais Antechrist", and "Les quinze signes du jugement.". Of these, "La Vie du mauvais Antechrist" (pp. 70-72) is antisemitic. The Antichrist is born of incest by "Un paillard Juif abominable" who knows his own daughter carnally, is nursed by a whore before embarking on his career of destroying Christianity. He comes to Jerusalem where the Jews adore him (he himself is circumcised), but when he attempts a second Ascension from the Mount of Olives he is cast down into a sepulchre at the bottom of hell, and "dix millions . De ces Juifs l'accompagneront".(Marquand Library). Musaeum Regalis Societatis or a Catalogue & Description Of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham Colledge. Made By Nehemiah Grew M. D. Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Colledge of Physitians. Whereunto is Subjoyned the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts. By the same Author
Grew, Nehemiah (1641-1712) Including thirty-one full-paged engraved plates (one folding) of the marvelous and exotic subjects of the collections of the Royal Society, and the engraved portrait of the dedicatee Daniel Colwall (d. 1690), the Society's benefactor. Bound in contemporary paneled calf, very nicely rebacked re-cornered, endpapers renewed, some wear to the surface of the boards. An excellent, clean copy. Short worm-trail in the inner margin of the opening leaves, small hole in inner margin of leaf F2. This copy has the usual pen corrections (found in all copies.) Leaf Aa1, Bb1, Pp2 and Pp4 have a few small ink spots (courtesy of the corrector.) Provenance: With the Gaddesden Library bookplate of Sir Walter Halsey (1868-1950). The Gaddesden Library was built 1768 to 1773 by Thomas Halsey, Esq. (1731-1788), in Hertfordshire, England. First edition of the first catalogue of the collections of the Royal Society's collections of ethnographic objects and natural history specimens. At the core of the collection are the donations from the "curiosity cabinets" of the Society's membership, and Robert Hubert's cabinet of "natural rarities", purchased in 1665. The catalogue is the work of Nehemiah Grew, one of the most distinguished scientists of the 17th century, best known for work in plant anatomy, and one of the earliest comparative anatomists to use the microscope. This book also includes his study of the digestive organs, "the first zoological book to have the term 'comparative anatomy' on the title page, and also the first attempt to deal with one system of organs only by the comparative method." (Garrison-Morton 297). The illustrations include a hippopotamus skull, the buttock skin of a rhinoceros, tortoise shells, the skeleton of a crocodile, the sea unicorn, a coconut, fish, bird's nests, shells, insects, and more. American Specimens: Grew describes numerous American specimens, and many are illustrated. There are descriptions of "Virginian money" (a string of hare's teeth), wampum, maize, and a sloth that breeds in Florida. Illustrations include an armadillo, Indian plum stone, coconut, Indian filbert, Butter Nut, and an Indian gourd. "The Sloath. Ignavus sive Pigritia. An Animal of so slow a motion, that he will be three or four days, at least, in climbing up and coming down a Tree. And to go the length of fifty Paces on plain ground, requires a whole day. The Natives of Brasile call him Haii, from his voice of a like sound: which he commonly repeats about six times together, descending, as if one should sing, La, sol, fa, mi, re, ute Whatsoever he takes hold of, he doth it so strongly (or, rather stifly) as sometimes to sleep securely while he hangs at it. See his Description in Clusius, Marggravius, Piso, and others. They all seem to omit the length of his fore feet, which is almost double to that of his hinder. From the shag of his Body, the shape of his Legs, his having little or no Tail, the slowness of his gate, and his climbing up of Trees, as little Bears are us'd to do, he seems to come near the Bear-kind: from which he chiefly differs, In having but three Claws upon a foot. He breedeth principally in Florida and Brasile". (p. 11) "Several sorts of Indian money, called Wampam-Peage. 'Tis made of a sort of Shell, formed into small Cylinders, about a ¼ of an inch long, or somewhat more or less: and so being bored, as Beads, and put upon Strings, pass among the Indians, in their usual Commerse, as Silver and Gold amongst us. But being loose, is not so currant". "A string of Virginian Money. A Row of Teeth in shape like the fore-Teeth of a Hare: all woven together at one end, with brown twisted thread, into one piece ¼ yard long."(p. 370) "Several Spikes or Heads of Mayz or Indian-Wheat; with the Grains, as is not unusual, of three or four colours. The Description of the Plant, with a large Account of its Culture, and Use, were communicated by Mr. Winthrop sometime since Governour of Connecticut in New England: and by me lately published, in a succinct but full Relation, with some alteration of the Method. The Plant grows to the height of six or eight feet; and is joynted like a Cane. 'Tis also full of a sweet juyce like that of the Sugar-Cane. On the Spike grow several strong thick Husks, which, before it is ripe, shut it close up round about. Thereby defending it, not only from all Weathers, but also the Ravine of Birds, to which, the Corn, while tender, is a sweet and enticing food". (p. 222) The Collections of the Royal Society: The Royal Society was officially founded in 1660. It soon established a 'repository', to be displayed first at Gresham College, Bishopsgate, to further the fellows' understanding of the natural world. In 1663, Robert Hooke was appointed the repository's first keeper. Fellows of the Society presented gifts and in 1665 the Society purchased Robert Hubert's cabinet of 'natural rarities'. This had been displayed to the public at Hubert's house near St Paul's Cathedral. While Hubert had charged an entrance fee to make money from the collection, the Society used it for research. 'Employed for philosophical and useful purposes' the repository helped further the fellows' understanding of the natural world. In 1678, Nehemiah Grew was ordered to compile a catalogue of the (still rapidly growing) collection. The world surrendered its most notable artifacts, natural and otherwise. Some of the 'oddities' described include: an Egyptian mummy, a male human fetus, the "skin of a moor", the skeleton of an abortive human fetus, human skulls, a penis, the womb of a woman, a sloth, a monstrous calf with two heads, a crocodile, a chameleon, a senembi lizard of Brazil, the skin of a few snakes from Brazil, a great bat from the West Indies, a Bird of Paradise, the leg of a dodo, several loons, an auk (now extinct), many eggs and nests, coral, stones, gems, an air pump, a condensing engine, a weather clock, two microscopes, an otocoustick, a reflecting telescope, a model of a winding stair case, Polygraphie et universelle écriture cabalistique. Traduicte par Gabriel de Collange, natif de tours en Auvergne. [with:] Clavicule et interpretation sur le contenu és cinq liures de Polygraphie, & vniuerselle escriture cabalistique, traduicte & augmentée par Gabriel de Collange [and:] Tables et figures planispheriques, extensives & dilatatives des recte & anverse, servants à l’uniuverse intelligence de toutes escritures
CRYPTOGRAPHY. OCCULT SCIENCE. PAPER INSTRUMENTS. Trithemius, Johannes (1462-1516); Collange, Gabriel de (1524-1572), translator and author A fine, unsophisticated copy in contemporary limp vellum (soiled and little rumpled.) Partly printed in red, the book includes 13 spherical woodcut diagrams with movable parts (volvelles). The volvelles, beautifully ornamented with masks, animals and allegorical figures. The large ornamental woodcut title page border was designed especially for the edition; the translator's portrait at age 37 is to be found on the verso. The title border and the portrait are repeated twice for the appended texts "Clavicule, et interpretation sur le contenu és cinq livres de Polygraphie" and "Tables et figures planispheriques.". A very appealing copy with some signs of wear and minor dog-earing. The opening leaves are a bit frayed at the edges; the title is soiled along the fore-edge and has a small hole in the upper margin just within the woodcut border. Early ownership inscriptions have been scored through. Tear in blank corner of Leaf A1, light stains in gathering Vv; outer margin of leaf 173 cut close, just shaving the woodcut. There is a stain along the fore-edge of the text block that does not impact the surface of the leaves aside from the final two gatherings, where it creeps into the white margin. Final leaf soiled and with marginal stains. Occasional light blemishes, light stain to upper, inner margin of first section. On the whole, a clean copy, all 13 volvelles intact and functioning. This is the important first edition of Gabriel de Collange's French translation of Trithemius' "Polygraphiae Libri sex"(Oppeneim, 1518), the cornerstone of modern cryptography, which includes Collange's expanded version of Trithemius' "key" ("clavicula") for penetrating and using the text. The book also features the first edition of Collange's important "Tables et figures planispheriques", "for the universal understanding of all writing", featuring 13 full-page moveable wheels for composing and deciphering any and all coded messages. The book marks an important leap forward in the printing of cryptographic texts. Trithemius had adapted the concept of the volvelle, an analog combinatory text generator created by Raymond Lull, for writing and deciphering codes. Trithemius described this method in his "Polygraphia" but the concept was only depicted in static tables in the 1518 and 1550 editions of his book. With his moveable "tables and planispheres", Collange has provided the code-writer and decipherer with the actual working device. "Collange has added 13 full-page volvelles, each divided into 12 sectors forming a wheel with 12 spokes. On each bar are listed 12 letters of the alphabet in their usual order but beginning at different points. The disc can be rotated under a fixed vertical strip which from top to bottom gives the ordinary alphabet from a to m and n to z, &. By turning the disc to a different section against the fixed vertical, one has a simple means of finding a key to a cipher. By means of this French work, Trithemius' text paved the way for all subsequent cryptography". (Sten G. Lindberg, "Mobiles in Books. Volvelles, Inserts, Pyramids, Divinations, and Children's Games [="Mobiler I Böcker, Volveller Spåddomar Etc." Bokvännen 5-6 (1978)]." Translated by William S. Mitchell. The Private Library Series 3, 2:49â82). This is the first vernacular translation of Trithemius' work. The alphabets and diagrams of cabalistic signs anticipate Blaise de Vigenere's "Traicté des chiffres ou Secretes manières d'escrire" published twenty-five years later (1586). Johann of Trittenheim (1462-1516), abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Spannheim, exerted considerable influence on Hermetic thought of the period. The codes he invented and described in this book, notably the "Ave Maria" cipher which takes up the bulk of the work (each word representing a letter, with consecutive tables making it possible to so arrange a code that it will read as a prayer), and the "square table", a sophisticated system of coding using multiple alphabets, were used for centuries. Trithemius' Tableau and polyalphabetic encipherment: "In Book V [of Trithemius' book] appears, for the first time, the square table, or tableau. This is the elemental form of polyalphabetic substitution, for it exhibits all at once all the cipher alphabets in a particular system. These are usually all the same sequence of letters, but shifted to different positions in relation to the plaintext alphabet, as in [Leon Battista] Alberti's disk the inner alphabet assumed different positions in regard to the outer alphabet. The tableau sets them out in orderly fashion-the alphabets of the successive positions laid out in rows one below the other, each alphabet shifted one place to the left of the one above. Each row thus offers a different set of cipher substitutes to the letters of the plaintext alphabet at the top. Since there can be only as many rows as there are letters in the alphabet, the tableau is square. "The simplest tableau is one that uses the normal alphabet in various positions as the cipher alphabets. Each cipher alphabet produces, in other words, a Caesar substitution. This is precisely Trithemius' tableau, which he called his "tabula recta." "Trithemius used this tableau for his polyalphabetic encipherment, and in the simplest manner possible. He enciphered the first letter with the first alphabet, the second with the second, and so on. (He gave no separate plaintext alphabet, but the normal alphabet at the top can serve.) Thus a plaintext beginning Hunc caveto virum . . . became HXPF GFBMCZ FUEiB. . In this particular message, he switched to another alphabet after 24 letters, but in another example he followed the more normal procedure of repeating the alphabets over and over again in groups of 24. The great advantage of this procedure over Alberti's is that a new alphabet is brought into play with each letter. Alberti shifted alphabets only after three or four words. Thus the ciphertext would mirror the obvious pattern of repeated letters of a word lik De afflictione, tam captivorum quam etiam sub Turcae tributo viventium christianorum
SLAVERY NARRATIVES. GeorgeviÄ, BartolomÄj [Bartol ÄurÄeviÄ] (1506 - 1566) Bound in modern vellum. A fine, unpressed copy with good margins of this extremely rare book. Illustrated with seven half-page illustrations in the text, a woodcut of the author on the final leaf, and a small title vignette. Only 1 other copy of this edition traced in North America (Dartmouth). Searching all editions combined, I have located only 1 other copy in North America (the 1544 Antwerp edition, at Harvard). Extremely rare second edition (the first published in Germany) of Georgevic's illustrated, first-hand account of his capture by the Ottomans, his experiences as a slave, and his eventual escape from Ottoman captivity. It includes a description of Turkish customs and a short Latin-Turkish dictionary of common words and sentences, as well as the first Croatian-Latin dictionary. Bartolomej Georgevic, also known as Bartol ÄurÄeviÄ (1506 - 1566) was born in Mala Mlaka, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary (now part of Croatia). After studying in Kalocsa and Esztergom, Georgevic was captured and enslaved at the Battle of Mohács (1526) during Suleiman the Magnificent's Ottoman invasion of Hungary. He was sold seven times and endured Turkish captivity for twelve years, escaping later to Armenia. In the late 1530's Georgevic travelled through the Middle East to Jerusalem, for which he became known as the 'Jerusalem Pilgrim'. Upon his return to Europe via Antwerp, he published the first edition of 'De afflictione' in 1544 and continued to travel through Worms, Vienna, Krakow and Uppsala, finally settling in Rome in 1552. Georgevic was one of the first Slavs whose publications became widespread and popular throughout Europe, in particular due to his first-hand accounts of the enslavement of Christians by Ottoman invaders. These traumatic experiences left a deep mark on the author and this is seen in his writing, where the threat of Turkish danger is a constant presence, and where he strongly encouraged anti-Ottoman resistance for all European nations. Georgevic's text is illustrated by seven crisp woodcuts depicting scenes of enslavement, forced labor, attempted escape by swimming, and subsequent torture suffered by Christian prisoners during their captivity in Constantinople. An additional woodcut illustration at the end of the volume shows the author kneeling before Christ during his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The Latin-Turkish lexicon contains simple sentences and questions adequate for beginner learners of the language, such as 'Where were you born?' and 'Peace be upon you, prince'. Additionally, the author is widely known as a lexicographer and polyglot, responsible for writing the first Croatian-Latin dictionary - half a century older than the famous VranÄiÄ dictionary of 1595. This was first published in the first edition of 'De afflictione', printed in 1544 in Antwerp, using Åtokavian script. The lexicon is also included in this second edition of the work. Despite the prevalent anti-Ottoman sentiment of the work, this account of Turkey became a popular description of Turkish culture for European audiences. It was widely disseminated, reprinted and translated into Dutch, English, German, Czech and Italian. Certain parts were also incorporated into the works of Sansovino, Luther, and Melanchthon.
Le terze rime di Dante
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) A fine copy, ruled in red throughout, bound in early 19th-c. English burgundy morocco. The boards are tooled in blind and ruled with a single gilt filet. The spine is tooled in compartments in gilt and blind and lettered directly in gilt. With doublures and end-leaves of brown silk with gilt borders and corner-pieces. Edges of the text-block gilt; spine very lightly sunned, some minimal rubbing at extremities and minor marks to boards; engraved armorial bookplate of William Ewart Gladstone to front pastedown (see provenance note below). Recto of first and final leaf lightly soiled. First leaf lightly foxed and with a light stain, small light stain to margin of lvs. a5 and a6; a few other trivial blemishes. Very nice. This is the state with the Aldine anchor and dolphin device on the final leaf. Quires a-c were also completely re-set, the present copy having the headline 'INFERNO' on a2r, and 'INF' in all the other leaves of these quires. With five added lvs. from the 1527 Paganini edition comprising: a double-page woodcut schematic diagram of the sins punished in the Inferno, a single leaf showing the moral scheme of Purgatory; and a double-paged woodcut illustration of the Inferno, based on the researches of Antonio Manetti (1423-1497) (see below). The edition - titled here simply "Le terze rime" - signals a linguistic restoration of the work and an important advance in the recovery of the original text. The 1502 Aldine was carefully prepared by the Venetian patrician and humanist Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), who used as his primary source an authoritative mid-fourteenth-century manuscript taken from the library of his father Bernardo, which Boccaccio had sent as a gift to Petrarch between 1351 and 1353 (Biblioteca Vaticana, ms Vat. lat. 3199). The second identified source is the Landino edition of 1481, which had become the standard text of the "Commedia" by the end of the fifteenth century. According to Bembo's own notes in the copy-text - now in the Vatican Library - the editorial work began on 6 July 1501 and was finished on 26 July 1502. Aldus published the text in August 1502; it is assumed that Bembo sent the quires in sequence to the printer as he finished working on them. The Aldine Dante is quite different to all previous editions of the poem. For the first time the "Commedia" is set in italic type and printed in the easily portable octavo format, unencumbered by the extensive commentary which, from the Vindeliniana onwards, had always accompanied Dante's cantiche in the earlier and larger format editions. The colophon is followed by Aldus's warning to punish anyone printing or selling counterfeit editions, "Cautum est ne quis hunc impune imprimat, uendat ue librum nobis inuitis". The Illustrations: The map is a synthesis of the illustrations originally found in the 1506 Giunta edition of Dante's "Commedia". That edition, edited by the humanist Girolamo Benivieni (1453-1542), included the important "Dialogo circa el sito forma et misure dello Inferno", an essay edited by Benivieni from the papers of the Florentine mathematician and architect Antonio di Tuccio Manetti (1423-1497). The woodcuts are based on Manetti's calculations. Although the woodcut leaves in this volume come from Paganini's 1527 Toscolano edition, Paganini was not the first to use these "reworked" Giunta images. It was Aldus -working in the spirit of appropriation so often practiced by the Giunta family against him- who created these images for use in his 1515 second edition of Dante. Aldus proudly announced the inclusion of the map on the 1515 title page: "sito et forma della valle infernale tratta dalla istessa descrittione del poeta" ("the location, shape, and size of the infernal valley, derived from the poet's own description"). "The two-page map provides a cross-section of the valley of Hell, and it is in part modelled on the Manetti woodcuts. However, the 1515 map is far richer in detail and more elegant in design and brings together in a single drawing all the sub-divisions and circles, the names of the guardians (and even Paolo and Francesca), the distances between the circles and major measures related to the depth and diameter of Hell. Compared to previous illustrated editions, which had combined decorative appeal with enhanced understanding, this map has a much more scholarly aim."(Gilson, Reading Dante in Renaissance Italy Florence, Venice and the 'Divine Poet', p. 44) Debates over the form and size of Dante's Inferno continued throughout the 16th century. In 1588, Galileo himself waded into the debate with two lectures delivered before the Florentine Academy, during which he pronounced that, remarkably, Manetti had "known the mind of the Poet": "Mirabilmente, dunque, possiamo concludere aver investigata il Manetti la mente del nostro Poeta." The two other woodcuts are of an entirely different nature. They are "diagrammatic representations, designed by Bembo's friend and correspondent Trifone Gabriele, of the moral ordering of Hell and Purgatory, both in the form of schemes, a two-page one related to the categorization of the sins of violence and fraud, and a single-page diagram of the doctrine of love in Purgatory. In line with the title's concern with the poet's own description, both schemes are accurate visual representations of two specific passages in the poem (Inf XI, 22-66 and Purg. xvn, 85-139)."(Ibid.) The provenance: Bookplate of William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British Liberal politician who served four non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a total of twelve years. In the late 1890s Bernard Quaritch wrote of the assiduous bibliophile Gladstone, a friend and loyal customer of over fifty years, that 'The careful selection of the best things in each class marks the wisdom of his bibliophily, and the equally careful avoidance of poor and bad books . is a measure of his critical sagacity', remarking also that 'the love of fine artistic bindings is also a feature![La sfera del mondo [and: Delle Stelle Fisse]](https://rarebookinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/31836356987-600x400.jpg)
La sfera del mondo [and: Delle Stelle Fisse]
ASTRONOMY. Piccolomini, Alessandro (1508-1578) A fine, attractive, and unsophisticated copy, bound in contemporary limp vellum (binding a bit rumpled, with small defects to the spine and nibbling to the upper edge -charming evidence of a hungry mouse.) The text is in excellent condition, very fresh, with trivial blemishes as follows: Leaf i1 with a clean tear in the text (no loss), lvs. k1-2 with contemporary marginal notes; small stain in lower margin of gathering O, a damp-stain in the lower margin of gathering P; leaf P2 with a small paper flaw affecting a few letters, trivial light foxing to the upper margin of a few gatherings, very light stain in lower margin of final 2 lvs. The book is illustrated with woodcut diagrams, illustrations of instruments, and 47 full-page woodcut star maps. Alessandro Piccolomini was professor of philosophy at the University of Padua from 1539 to 1543. In 1541, in a famous letter written to Pietro Aretino, he expounded his proposition that scientific works should be written in the vernacular. In 1540, Piccolomini popularized astronomy through the publication of two influential works, both written in Italian, "La Sfera del Mondo" (The Sphere of the World) and "Delle stelle fisse"(On the Fixed Stars). The latter work holds the distinction of being the first published star atlas. The beautiful, minimalist star charts depict 47 of the 48 Ptolemaic constellations without the fanciful imagery of the mythological zodiac figures. Piccolomini devised a novel system of varying the size and shape of the woodcut stars to show their magnitude, and of identifying the brightest stars by marking them with letters of the Latin alphabet. These innovations would be used by succeeding generations of atlas-makers, notably, in 1603, Johann Bayer (who would substitute Greek letters for Latin). The star maps include words indicating the position of the celestial pole (ex. "parte verso il polo") and the direction in which the constellations turns with the rotation of the celestial sphere. "Piccolomini's constellations were drawn face-on as they appear in the sky, rather than the mirror-image globe view of Dürer's [two single-sheet celestial hemispheres]. This made the atlas more readily usable by observers. In all, [Piccolomini's] charts plotted 621 stars. In the handbook he provided descriptions of each constellation and a mini-catalogue of the 455 brightest stars."(Ian Ridpath) Piccolomini's two works, especially the star atlas, with its clear depictions of the constellations and the easily-accessible vernacular text, had an enormous impact, serving to popularize astronomical knowledge that had previously been understood primarily by the highly-educated and Latin-literate. "It is no exaggeration to suggest that Piccolomini's 'Delle stelle fisse' qualifies to be called the first true star atlas. The treatise was certainly informative, with its detailed accounts of the stars and constellations. More to the point, though, are Piccolomini's systematic approach, his consistency in presenting the different elements of his text (a catalogue, the illustrations, the tables and the written descriptions) and, not least, the accuracy of his representation of the major constellations as these are seen from the Earth. In a sense, he anticipated the star atlases used today, which like Piccolomini emphasize stellar patterns (rather than surrounding images) realistically and use different symbols and letters to categorize stars according to their magnitudes. "Piccolomini organized the star catalogue in 'Delle stelle fisse according to the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations (though in the finished work the constellation Equuleus is missing), discussing each constellation in turn. Below a heading giving the name for the constellation, he explained why the Greeks chose that particular name and the origins of its mythical associations. Then followed a list of the bright stars in the constellation, each with a lower-case Roman letter keyed to the star in the illustration, starting with the brightest, which is typically given the letter 'a'. This is the first time that such a systematic categorization is found in book devoted to the constellations. The list includes a brief description of the star's location in the constellation (for example, 'quasi nel mezo de la coda' [almost in the middle of the tail] in the case of star 'd' in Ursa Minor, the Little Bear), and an indication of its size (grandezza), that is, its magnitude on a scale of 1 to 4. Piccolomini numbered his woodcut illustrations in Roman numerals, from I to XLVIII, but there actually were only forty-seven constellations, since the one depicting Equuleus was missing. "The figures contain a number of features not found in earlier constellation maps. Each plate features an accurate map of a constellation pattern with the stars correctly plotted as seen from Earth, but without the traditional mythical figure. The stars are identified by the same letters given in the catalogue. Four different symbols are deployed to indicate the magnitudes of the stars, with the largest, open, star symbol representing the brightest. Along the bottom of each diagram a linear degree scale allows the reader to determine the size of the whole constellation. Although Piccolomini did not supply a coordinate system, he gave the orientation in writing, with the direction in which the celestial pole lies noted by the words 'parte verso il polo' (the part facing the pole). The constellation's direction of rotation as it moves across the sky is expressed as its leading edge - 'verso dove' or whither - and its trailing edge - 'donde 'or whence."(Kanas, Alessandro Piccolomini and the First Printed Star Atlas (1540), Imago Mundi , 2006, Vol. 58, No. 1 (2006), pp. 70-76) "Alessandro Piccolomini, a member of an old, noble family of Siena, was born on 13 June 1508. In his youth, he studied literature (possibly at the University of Siena), translated classical works into Italian verse, and wrote several comedies, some- $8,500
- $8,500
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