Isidorus Hispalensis (Isidore of Seville)

Etymologiae (with De Summo bono)

      Peter Loslein, Venice 1483 - Chancery folio. Textblock measures 275 x 194mm. Bound in full 17th century (?) vellum with manuscript title on spine and two pairs of leather ties (recently renewed). Foliation: [4], 101, [2], 28 leaves (the total of 136 leaves forming 272 pages). Signature collation: p4 a-h10 i12 k10 ?2 A-B10 C8 .Complete copy. Printed in gothic letter (with some quotations in Greek type), in double column, 58 lines per column. Initial spaces (unrubricated) with printed guide-letters. Full page woodcut illustration of the tree of consanguinity ("Hec est arbor consanguinitatis") on leaf e9v, woodcut 'T-O' map in text on leaf g9v, and other schematic woodcuts in text. Recto of the first leaf (p1r) is blank, on verso begins the Table of Contents of the Etymologiae (Registru[m] in libros etymologiaru[m].) which ends on p4 recto (verso blank). Text of the Etymologiae is prefaced with several letters between St.Isidore and Bishop Braulio (leaves a[2]r - a[3]r). Text of the Etymologiae begins on a[3]r with Incipit liber primus etymologiarum. Text of the Etymologiae ends on k10 verso with Finit liber etymologiarum Isidori hyspalensis episcopi. The following unsigned quire of 2 leaves contains the Table of Contents of De summo bono on ?1v-?2r (?1r and ?2v are blank). It is followed by the text of De summo bono occupying leaves A1r - C8r, and terminating with the colophon on C8r. Verso of the final leaf (C8v) is blank. Very Good antiquarian condition. Binding slightly rubbed. Front inner hinge a bit started, but holding securely, binding tight. A pencilled signature and faded small stamp of K.G.T. Webster to top of front free endpaper; two identical small round armorial stamps (of 17th century?) of an ecclesiastical library to blank verso of p1. A clipping from an early catalogue pertaining to this edition tipped to front pastedown. Some leaves slightly browned, occasional light staining or minor soiling. A few tiny wormholes to the textblock at the beginning of the volume (affecting a few letters), and to blank margins of a few final leaves. Top margin cropped somewhat closely with a few headlines or foliation numbers shaved, and touching the extremities of the 'tree of consanguinity' woodcut, but with no loss of text. A few leaves in De summo bono with early marginal notes. Generally a clean, well preserved and genuine exemplar. From the library of Kenneth Grant Tremayne Webster (1871 ? 1942): with his small stamp, and signature of "K.G.T. Webster, Cambridge, Mass., 1915" on front free endpaper. The Etymologiae is the highly influential encyclopedia of medieval knowledge, composed by Saint Isidore at the beginning of the 7th century AD. The Etymologiae present a systematic survey of the world according to Judaic, Graeco-Roman, and Christian civilization in the form of a vast thesaurus of Latin vocabulary, which supplies a more or less accepted or fanciful etymology for each term. It covers the liberal arts, medicine, law, language, geography and natural history, and constituted one of the main routes for the transmission of classical learning to the middle ages. Etymologiae presents in abbreviated form much of that part of the learning of antiquity that Christians thought worth preserving. The book provided a rich source of classical lore and learning for medieval writers. THE IMPORTANT 'T-O MAP' is included, in a slightly modified form, in this 1483 edition (on leaf g9v). It represents only the top-half of the spherical Earth. It was presumably tacitly considered a convenient projection of the inhabited parts, the northern temperate half of the globe. The 'T' in the map is the Mediterranean, dividing the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, and the 'O' is the encircling Ocean. Jerusalem was generally represented in the center of the map. Asia was typically the size of the other two continents combined. In patristic geography the Earthly Paradise (the Garden of Eden) was believed to be situated in Asia, at the eastern edge of India. The fine fu [Attributes: Hard Cover]