[De situ orbis terrarum] Haec continentur in hoc codice. C. Iulius Solinus de situ orbis terrarum & de singulis mirabilibus quae in mundo habentur. Vibius Sequester de fluminibus montibus lacubus & gentibus. Provinciarum totius orbis nomina. Ad nostra tempora redacta.
Hardcover
1512 · Pesaro
by SOLINUS, Caius Julius (fl. 250 CE) SONCINO, Girolamo (d. 1533)
Pesaro: (Girolamo Soncino) from colophon: Impressum Pisauri ab Hieronymo Soncino Ultimo Ianuarii, 1512. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio, two parts in one volume (304 x 210mm). Pagination: 6 leaves non. num., XXXIIII (34)
leaves, 8 leaves non. num. (including 2 blanks) (in total 50 leaves). Signatures: A(6), a(8), b-d(6), e(8); A-B(4), including 2 final blanks (title unsigned, A1 missigned, one of which is watermarked with crossed arrows). Roman type. Edited by Alexander Gabuardus de Turcella
(fl. 15001516). Modern leather, spine lettered in gilt DE SITUS ORBIS TERRANUM PESARO 1512, retaining 19th-century marbled wrappers that bear the excised arms of James Maidment (17931879), British antiquarian and literary collector (heraldry of three laurel slips on a chevron between three doves proper, armed crest, laid on front flyleaf); (margins cropped close affecting some marginalia, lightest spots on mostly the front text block edges (tabula), otherwise a complete and sound copy of this rare Latin geography). Extensive early Latin annotations, written in several hands, indexing the names of several mythological gods and goddesses (Athena, Proserpina, Cyclops, Romulus, and others) when the names show up in text, and names of geographical locations (Strongila /Strongylum), and natural history notations for elements ignis (fire) and minerals Achates (agate), Corallium (coral) as they are discussed in text; marginalia neatly ceasing on leaf XVI. Later pencil inscription recording the purchase from Sothebys by Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (May 1925).
Beautiful first folio edition of the De situ orbis terrarum by Girolamo Soncino (d. 1533), which he printed while active in Pesaro. The Soncino family specialized in printing Talmudic texts, especially Hebrew incunabula, and Girolamo (or Gershom) traveled extensively throughout his career in search of new manuscripts for his press. As fortune would have it, in 1512, Soncino produced this curious compendium of late antique knowledge written by the third-century Latin grammaticus Caius Julius Solinus (flourishing in Rome around 250 CE, or in following decades). The De situ orbis terrarum, originally titled the Polyhistor, was Solinuss world tour of tales, including those bizarre and miraculous, stretching from the ancient Roman Empire to the distant lands of the Near East and India. It was first published in Venice in 1493 with the title De situ orbis terrarum et memorabilibus. Solinuss ancient geography concerned matters topographical, botanical, and zoological, and extensively referenced Plinys Natural History and the De situ orbis by Pomponius Mela. In the dedication, Solinus mentions a host of other authorities upon which he relied, including Varro, Homer, Virgil, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, and Sallust. This Soncino edition was edited by Alexander Gabuardus de Turcella (fl. 15001516), a little-known sixteenth century editor, who made minor changes to the text of Solinus by adding lists of rivers, mountains, lakes, and peoples of the world from the work of Vibius Sequester, a fourth-century geographer.
Gabuardus made a further addition by including a list of the provinces of the world, which was edited for our time. Solinuss De situ orbis terrarum was an exceptionally popular work throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period; it was a practical catalogue of memorable things found in the natural world, known especially as an authority on geographical knowledge, although most of the details surrounding its existence remain a mystery. This copy is enhanced with the enthusiastic interaction of a Renaissance reader, who created a robust marginal index to the imaginative and historical content in the
beginning of the book probably weighing the relevancy of the text as definitive guide. This attractive work of Sonciniana remains a paramount classic for the Renaissance printing of a late Roman encyclopedic treatise. The De situ orbis terrarum is not commonly found in the US; OCLC locates institutional copies at the Morgan Library, Yale, American Antiquarian Society, Hebrew Union College-Cincinnati, and Universities of Illinois and Minnesota. USTC
includes also Duke. USTC no. 856988. (Inventory #: WB16272)
leaves, 8 leaves non. num. (including 2 blanks) (in total 50 leaves). Signatures: A(6), a(8), b-d(6), e(8); A-B(4), including 2 final blanks (title unsigned, A1 missigned, one of which is watermarked with crossed arrows). Roman type. Edited by Alexander Gabuardus de Turcella
(fl. 15001516). Modern leather, spine lettered in gilt DE SITUS ORBIS TERRANUM PESARO 1512, retaining 19th-century marbled wrappers that bear the excised arms of James Maidment (17931879), British antiquarian and literary collector (heraldry of three laurel slips on a chevron between three doves proper, armed crest, laid on front flyleaf); (margins cropped close affecting some marginalia, lightest spots on mostly the front text block edges (tabula), otherwise a complete and sound copy of this rare Latin geography). Extensive early Latin annotations, written in several hands, indexing the names of several mythological gods and goddesses (Athena, Proserpina, Cyclops, Romulus, and others) when the names show up in text, and names of geographical locations (Strongila /Strongylum), and natural history notations for elements ignis (fire) and minerals Achates (agate), Corallium (coral) as they are discussed in text; marginalia neatly ceasing on leaf XVI. Later pencil inscription recording the purchase from Sothebys by Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (May 1925).
Beautiful first folio edition of the De situ orbis terrarum by Girolamo Soncino (d. 1533), which he printed while active in Pesaro. The Soncino family specialized in printing Talmudic texts, especially Hebrew incunabula, and Girolamo (or Gershom) traveled extensively throughout his career in search of new manuscripts for his press. As fortune would have it, in 1512, Soncino produced this curious compendium of late antique knowledge written by the third-century Latin grammaticus Caius Julius Solinus (flourishing in Rome around 250 CE, or in following decades). The De situ orbis terrarum, originally titled the Polyhistor, was Solinuss world tour of tales, including those bizarre and miraculous, stretching from the ancient Roman Empire to the distant lands of the Near East and India. It was first published in Venice in 1493 with the title De situ orbis terrarum et memorabilibus. Solinuss ancient geography concerned matters topographical, botanical, and zoological, and extensively referenced Plinys Natural History and the De situ orbis by Pomponius Mela. In the dedication, Solinus mentions a host of other authorities upon which he relied, including Varro, Homer, Virgil, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, and Sallust. This Soncino edition was edited by Alexander Gabuardus de Turcella (fl. 15001516), a little-known sixteenth century editor, who made minor changes to the text of Solinus by adding lists of rivers, mountains, lakes, and peoples of the world from the work of Vibius Sequester, a fourth-century geographer.
Gabuardus made a further addition by including a list of the provinces of the world, which was edited for our time. Solinuss De situ orbis terrarum was an exceptionally popular work throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period; it was a practical catalogue of memorable things found in the natural world, known especially as an authority on geographical knowledge, although most of the details surrounding its existence remain a mystery. This copy is enhanced with the enthusiastic interaction of a Renaissance reader, who created a robust marginal index to the imaginative and historical content in the
beginning of the book probably weighing the relevancy of the text as definitive guide. This attractive work of Sonciniana remains a paramount classic for the Renaissance printing of a late Roman encyclopedic treatise. The De situ orbis terrarum is not commonly found in the US; OCLC locates institutional copies at the Morgan Library, Yale, American Antiquarian Society, Hebrew Union College-Cincinnati, and Universities of Illinois and Minnesota. USTC
includes also Duke. USTC no. 856988. (Inventory #: WB16272)