PLINY. GAIUS PLINIUS SECUNDUS (KNOWN AS PLINY THE ELDER).:

C. PLINII SECUNDI HISTORIA MUNDI

      Basel, 1535. denuo emendata, non paucis locis ex diligenti ad pervetusta et optimae fidei exemplaria collatione nunc primu[m] animadversis castigatisq[ue], quemadmodum evidenter in Sigismundi Gelenij annotationibus operi adnexis apparet. Adiunctus est Index copiosissimus. Printer's names from colophon on page 671, Latin text, Basel, per Hieronymum Frobenium, Io. Hervagium, & Nicolaum Episcopium, 1535. Folio, 370 x 245 mm, 14½ x 9¾ inches, printer's pictorial device on title page, on verso page 671 and on verso of final leaf, with 37 large historiated initials and small decorated initials in the Table, pages (36), 671, (181), 51 of these unnumbered pages contain Gelenius' annotations, followed by 130 pages of index, bound in full contemporary blind tooled pig-skin over wooden boards, with 2 brass clasps in working order, raised bands to spine with blind tooling in compartments, no lettering. Covers soiled and stained, 110 mm (4½ inch) cut to leather on upper cover, small loss of leather to lower corner on upper board, the other corners slightly worn, 4 wormholes to lower cover, 1 to upper cover, red stain filling lowest compartment of spine, upper hinge cracked at top 25 mm (1 inch", tiny crack to lower hinge at top, "Plinius" inked neatly across fore-edges, large handcoloured old armorial bookplate to front pastedown, with most of name and part of motto erased, inscription below bookplate erased and messy stain above it, old ink inscription erased in upper margin of title page, 4 small old paper repairs to reverse of title page, 3 at inner edge and 1 in blank area needed because of slight damage caused by horizontal crease which is repeated on A2, single small wormhole in inner margin from title to page 71, another to fore-edge of last 7 leaves of index, 2 very small closed margin edge tears, tiny closed tear to upper edge of 6 consecutive pages, a few brief early marginal notes, a little neat underlining, 1 pointing hand, contents otherwise very clean and bright. Pasted onto rear pastedown is a large sheet of paper with a drawing of a labyrinth on it in old ink and a reference to in Latin mentioning the story of Theseus and Ariadne. Binding tight and sound. A good sound copy of this classic encyclopedic work. This is the first printing of the Naturalis Historia with annotations by the Bohemian humanist Gelenius. The text is preceded by a preface by Erasmus of Rotterdam, reprinted from his edition of 1525. Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, was born in Como, Italy, in A.D. 23. By the time he died 56 years later, he had been a cavalry officer, an adviser to emperors and the author of at least 75 books, not to mention another 160 volumes of unpublished notebooks. He is remembered today for just one of those works, his 37-volume Naturalis Historia (also entitled Historia Mundi), in which he planned to "set forth in detail all the contents of the entire world." Pliny describes in detail the nature of the physical universe: geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, and the medicinal uses of plants and curatives derived from the animals, among a host of other topics including mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, history and the arts and letters. Although dubious as a work of science, Pliny's Historia Naturalis provides a unique glimpse into the world view of ancient Rome. It is a wonderful melange of the real and the fantastic, the never was and the never could be. He wrote of dog-headed people who communicated by barking, and people with no heads at all, their eyes in their shoulders. He wrote of snakes that launch themselves skyward to catch high-flying birds, and of the "basilisk serpent" of Africa, which kills bushes on contact, bursts rocks with its breath and is so venomous that when one was killed by a man on horseback, "the infection rising through the spear killed not only the rider but also the horse." The work became a model for all later encyclopedias in terms of the breadth of subject matter examined, the need to reference original authors, and a comprehensive index list of the contents. The work was dedicated to the emperor Titus, son of Pliny's close friend, the emperor Vespasian, in the first year of Titus' reign. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published, lacking a final revision at his sudden and unexpected death. Images sent on request.