LACTANTIUS, Firmianus.

De opificio dei vel formatione hominis liber per vigintiunu(m) capita distributus, cu (m) eloque(n)tia eruditione praeclarus.

      Cologne, Heinrich Quentel, 1506. - 22)ff including last blank leaf. Gothic letter. Bound with: PLINIUS, Caius Secundus. Illustrium virorum a condida urbe. Cologne, Heinrich Quentel, 1505. (15)ff. Lacks last leaf with colophon. Gothic letter. 2 works in 1 volume. Small 4to. Wrappers. I: Rare humanist school text edition of this 4th century medical treatise preserving the views of the time on embryology, gynaecology, anatomy and physiology, mentioning the determination of sex, the origin of semen, etc. It is the earliest work of Lactantius of Numidia (c260-c325), one of the church fathers, and tutor to the son of Constantine the Great. Some isolated early ink specks on title, otherwise a good copy with copious marginal notes in Latin by a contemporary humanist scholar who made additional notes on a slip of paper which is also bound in. Durling, Suppl. 133 (imperfect). Not in Proctor, BMC, Adams, Wellcome, Osler, Cushing. II: Another rare school text of a work attributed to Pliny the Younger. The editor is J. Gottesheim. BMC p 704. Not in Adams. [Attributes: Soft Cover]