PLINIUS SECUNDUS, C

Historia naturalis (Ed. Hermolaus Barbarus)

      Bartholomaeus de Zanis 12 Dec 1496, Venice - 17th century speckled calf (neatly rebacked with original gilt spine preserved) BOUND WITH SABELLICUS, M. A. In hoc volumine hec continentur: Marci Antonii Sabellici annotationes veteres [et] recencentes: Ex Plinio: Livio: [et] pluribus authoribus. Philippi Beroaldi annotationes centum. Eiusdem contra Seruium gram[m]aticum libellus. Eiusdem castigationes in Plinium. Eiusdem etiam appendix annotamentorum. Ioannis Baptiste pii Bononiensis annotationes. Angeli Politiani Miscellaneorum Centuria vna. Domitii Calderini Obseruationes quedam. Eiusdem Politiani Panepistemon. Eiusdem prelectio in Aristotele[m]: cui titulus est Lamia. Joa[n]. Baptiste Egnatii Veneti Racemationes. [Venice], (Giacomo Penzio, 16. Dec. 1502). Folio. [19], 85 (i.e. 86) leaves. Without last blank leaf. Several lengthy Greek sections. Folio . I. Beautifully printed and well preserved early Venetian edition of Pliny the Younger's Natural History which, according to the British Museum Catalogue was based on Britannicus' Brescia edition of 1496. Pliny's Historia naturalis, written in 77 A.D. is the earliest extant encyclopedia, an enormous repository of ancient knowledge and belief about cosmography, geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, medicine, metallurgy, mineralogy and the fine arts. It is particularly valuable for including its sources (which number nearly 500), and for containing the earliest surviving account on Roman plant-lore (Norman). II. FIRST EDITION of this rare post-incunable which is a collection of works by Marcus Antonius Sabellicus, Pliny, Domitius de Calderiis, Philipp Beroaldus, Angelo Politanus, Giovanni Baptiste Egnatius, and others. Including a long Greek poem. The prefatory letter "Ioannes Bembus Venetus Andreae Anixi Corcyraeo.S.P.D." is dated February 11, 1502. Marcantonio Sabellico (1436-1506) was an eminent Italian humanist and historian who had studied under Julius Pomponius Laetus, Gaspar Veronese and Porcelio Pandone at Rome. He taught rhetoric at Udine and later held the first lectureship in humanities at the school of San Marco. He also served as librarian to the collection of books which Cardinal Bessarion had given Venice. 239 leaves (of 240; without last blank). Large woodcut initials; capital spaces with guide letters; Roman letter. Very minor marginal dampstain on first 20 leaves; some light toning to margins of title-page; marginal annotationson on about 30 leaves in a neat contemporary hand. Early printed book plate (17th cent.?): "De La Bibliotheque de Jean-Charles Bayle, fils, De Riom." § I. Goff P-798; GW M 34335; BMC V, 433; Klebs 786.13 II. BM/STC, Italian, 188; not in Adams. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]