Medieval and Renaissance Latin
Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313-1375). Genealogiae Deorum Libri XV. Vicenza: Simon De Gabis Bevilaqua (Colophon: per Symonem de gabis Papiesem), 20 December 1487. $15,000
Folio (32 cm); [8], 200 leaves. Roman type 1, 53 lines per page. 7-line initial spaces with guide letters (initials occasionally supplied in pen by contemporary or later reader). Text in 2 columns. Bound in 18th-century (?) 1/2 mottled calf over patterned paper boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt tooling and gilt title label. Titled in ink on fore edge. Occasional notation in early hand; occasional spots and occasional light foxing. Few leaves browned in latter part of text. Free endleaves consist of original manuscript on vellum, 9th or 10th century, in a remarkably clear and readable Carolingian miniscule hand. The text on the endleaves is from the Homilies of Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt (d. 853).
References: HC 3316; GW 4476; Goff B-752.
First book printed by Simon Bevilaqua, and the only book in which he allowed his family name, De Gabis, to appear. Simone Gabi (1450-1518) deliberately kept his origins in shadow. We know nothing of him before the publication of this edition of Boccaccio's Genealogiae deorum. In all subsequent work (in Vicenza, Venice, Torino, and ultimately Lyon) he signed his name "Bevilaqua," a nickname he wore ironically because of the copious amounts of wine he consumed. In addition to Boccaccio's encyclopedia of classical mythology, the text also includes his gazetteer of classical geography, "De Montibus, Sylvis, Fontibus, Lacubus, Fluminibus, Stagnis, seu Paludibus, De Nominibus Maris."
He worked on the London Polyglot Bible
Bochart, Samuel (1599-1667). Hierozoicon, sive Bipertitum opus de animalibus sacrae scripturae. London: Thomas Roycroft, 1663. $2,000
First edition. Two volumes in one; folio (40cm); [96] pages, 1094 columns, [137] pages, 888 columns, [112] pages, and engraved portrait. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Title page printed in red and black. Text in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. Bound in contemporary vellum, embossed iwth "oriental" losenge and with the gilt stamp of the Society of Writers to the Signet on both boards. References: Wing B3386; Wood 245; Osleriana 2062 (later ed.).. Occasional light foxing; lower joint beginning to crack, with some vellum flaked away. Vellum scuffed and discolored. Early ownership inscription on title page.
In an age distinguished by great intellectuals, Samuel Bochart stood out as one of the most learned. A master of Middle Eastern languages, he was invited to Stockholm by Queen Christina (in 1652) to study the important collection of Arabic scientific manuscripts there. The Queen gave Bochart an Arabic manuscript on animals as a gift upon his departure. That gift apparently engendered the Hierozoicon, an encyclopedic work on the zoology of the ancient Middle East, as recorded in the Bible. Bochart considers each animal mentioned in scripture and explores its treatment by ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic and Hebrew naturalists. Some of the Arabic sources, liberally quoted and translated, appear in print here for the first time.
Casaubon, Isaac (1559-1614). De satyrica Graecorum poesi et Romanorum satira libri duo. In quibus etiam poetae recensentur, qui in utraque poesi floruerunt. [In appendix:] Euripides; Florent Chrestien (1541 - 1596). Cyclops Euripidae latinitate donata. Paris: Ambroise & Jérôme Drouart, 1605. $1,600
First edition. Octavo (18cm); two parts in one volume: [16] 356 [4] (last two pages blank); 38 [2 blank] pages. Roman, italic and Greek types. Engraved illustration in text of Bacchus and Silenus among satyrs. Woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic ornaments. Bound in contemporary (?) vellum with yapp fore-edges. Early owner's inscription on title page (Henrik ter Borch); presentation inscription dated at Cambridge, 13 March 1930, on front free endpaper from "HFS" to Gilbert S. Inglefield, (later Lord Mayor of London). Engraved advertisement on front pastedown for Ward & Chandler, Booksellers, circa 1740. Some dampstaining, particularly at the end of the volume. A small red stain on the lower board.
References: Brunet I 1613-1614; Hoffmann II, 84; Tchermerzine III, 398 (Florent).
Casaubon's innovative work on classical satire, demonstrating that Greek satyr plays and Roman satire were two entirely distinct literary genres (thereby ending a confusion that had prevailed since the 4th century). The first specialized monograph on satire, the work grew out of Casaubon's commentary on Persius published earlier the same year. In appendix to De Satyrica, Casaubon published a translation by Florent Chrestien of Euripides's satyr play Cyclops, the only preserved specimen of the Greek satyric genre. Chrestien was a student of Henri Estienne and librarian to Henry IV. Online scans of the Yale copy of De Satyrica failed to include the Euripides.
Humanism in Poland and Lithuania
Demetrius of Phaleron; Stanislaus Ilovius; Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Demetrii Phalerei de elocutione liber à Stanislao Ilovio Polono latinitate donatus, & annotationibus illustratus. Item, Dionysii Halicarnassei quaedam opuscula, eodem interprete: quae uersa pagina recensentur. Basel: Joannes Oporinus, 1557. $700
8vo (17cm); 262 pages. Text in Greek and Latin. 12 woodcut initials, many with animal figures. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, soiled but sound and entire. Light waterstaining on top margins and gutters throughout. Old repair at top edge of title page. Small hole in lower margin of one leaf without loss of text. Notations in ink on title and front pastedown; occasional marginalia. Private blind stamp in margin of title. Reference: Adams D-252.
First Ilowski edition. The Polish humanist Stanislaus Ilowski (d. 1589) edited and translated this treatise on rhetoric by Aristotle's student, Demetrius of Phaleron (ca. 350-280 BC). Ilowski dedicates the work to Mikolai "the Black" Radziwill (1515-1565), the Lithuanian duke who established humanist and Renaissance trends in Vilnius. The text also reprints Ilowski's versions historiographical writings of Dionysius Halicarnassus, first published 1546 by the Estienne press in Paris.
Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius. De bello Troiano et ... De excidio Troiae. [Paris]: Robert Stephanus (i.e., Estienne), 1618. $250
14cm; [4], 207, [1] pages. Bound in contemporary vellum over pasteboard, worn and soiled, with slight loss at crown and along top edges; yet binding is strong and flexible. Scattered stains in text, with a pervasive light dampstain in the upper right quadrant. Several owners' inscriptions, and old bookplate. In all, a shelf-worn copy but sound and entire.
The late-antique and medieval world assigned Dictys of Crete and Dares of Phrygia the coveted roles of eyewitness chroniclers of the Trojan War. Dictys was reckoned companion at arms to Idomeneus, and Dares was the priest of Hephaestus who advised Hector not to kill Patroclus. Their supposed war journals became the chief source for medieval writers on the Troy cycle.
Hugo, Herman (1588-1629). Pia desideria lib. III, ad Urbanum VIII. Antwerp: Hendrik Aertssens, 1632 (colophon: 1631). $500.
Sixth edition. 8vo (16 cm); [32], 442, [4] pages, including copper engraved title page, papal arms of Urban VIII, frontispiece, and 45 full-page engraved emblematic illustrations by Boethius a Bolswert. Woodcut tail pieces. Bound in contemporary full calf ruled in gilt, quite worn, joints splitting at spine ends; portion of leather worn away along edge of lower board and at corners. Pages not bright, but relatively free of foxing or stains. Early ownership inscriptions on title page, with occasional notes in text in contemporary hand, and extensive notes in French on final blanks. A later owner's notes in Latin appear in pencil on colophon page. All in all, a nice copy in a worn binding.
References: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books, #347; De Backer-Sommervogel IV, 513 (erroneously called "editio 5"); Praz, 376-77 (1624 and other editions).
According to Praz, there were 42 editions of the Latin text after the first edition of 1624. This edition restores Bolswert's copperplate engravings, which had been supplanted by woodcut versions in the Antwerp edition of 1628. The books overwhelming popularity was due in part to the appeal of the emblems, which render conundrums of religious belief in symbolic terms.
Petrarca, Francesco. ... Epistolarum familiarium libri XIV.... [Lyon]: Apud Samuelem Crispinum, 1601. $950
8vo (17cm); [32], 683 (i.e. 703), [1 blank] pages. Woodcut printer's device on title page; woodcut initials and head pieces. Bound in contemporary or slightly later full limp vellum with recent leather label. (Dampstain through first quire; pages variously toned, with scattered light spots; early owner's autograph on front free endpaper, later owner's heraldic stamp on title page.)
References: Graesse, V, 236 ("C'est l'édition la plus complète des Epitres de Petrarca. .; il y a 65 lettres de plus que dans la prem. édition.")
This edition was based on a manuscript discovered in the library of one Joannes Chalasius of Nimes, and it includes sixty five letters that appear in print here for the first time. There are several issues of the same edition, differing only in imprint. Some copies bear a Geneva imprint "apud Petrum Rouerianum," and others the Lyon imprint of Samuel Crispin. In this copy, the place of publication is not stated, which puts in the minority of surviving examples. Rare and desirable.
Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de (1584-1648). Idea principis christiano-politici. Cologne: Constantinus Munich, 1650. $1,200
14 cm; [24], 795, 5 pages, including engraved title page and 103 engraved emblematic illustrations in decorative oval frames. Bound in contemporary vellum, titled in ink on spine. Yapp edges. Shelf worn and not bright, but hardly foxed and generally unblemished. Upper hinge split but holding. A good copy overall.
Reference: Praz 483-84.
This essay on political power and its symbols was first published in Spanish in 1640, and came out in a Latin translation in 1649. This small-format edition of 1650 apparently increases the number of engraved emblems by one (earlier editions had 100 numbered emblems plus two unnumbered; this edition has 101 numbered plates). The text falls into the tradition of courtly instruction, refracting the lessons through a series of symbolic images.
Thomas Aquinas, Saint. Opuscula omnia, quibus adiunximus Opusculum de Eruditione Principis, antehac nunquam impressum. Venice: Girolamo Scoto, 1587. $650
Folio (33cm); 779 pages. Printer's woodcut device (the three graces) on title page. Woodcut initials. Disbound. Preserved in custom-made solander case. Several early ownership inscriptions on title page. Stain on fore edge. Occasional light stains in text.
The title page of this Venetian edition of the shorter works of Saint Thomas claims that the essay on the Machiavellian theme of the education of princes is printed here for the first time.
Valier, Agostino, Cardinal, Bishop of Verona (1531-1606). De rhetorica ecclesiastica libri tres. Cum synopsi et praelectionibus ; Ejusdem de Acolytorum disciplina. Verona: Girolamo Stringario, 1583. $700
4to (21cm); [24],336, [52], 78, [2] pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, titled in manuscript on spine for horizontal storage, with remains of later paper label titled in manuscript for vertical storage. Binding wrinkled and worn. Text block construction renewed with fresh thread and new endleaves. Edges toned, corners bumped at extremities. Scattered light foxing and toning.
Reference: Adams V-145
Last printing of the bishop of Verona's study of the arts of speech, directed at the working clergy (first published 1574, and one of the first post-Tridentine handbooks of sacred rhetoric). Perhaps this edition was intended to reinforce the author's pursuit of promotion, since he was made Cardinal later the same year. It is the first printing of it to include the 50-page diagrammatic synopsis of the work in the same volume, along with a shorter work on the education of priests. The text, based on classical models, provides priests with the elements of public speaking, including instruction on how to construct one's talks; how to excite joy, fear, pity, and anger; when and how to use memorable slogans and other ornaments of speech.
