.jpg?w=1)
Details
BESTIARY -- Libellus de Natura Animalium. Savona: Giuseppe Berruerio, 15 April 1524.
4° (202 x 141mm). Collation: a-d8. Gothic type. 4-part woodcut border and magister-cum-disciplis block on title, full-page woodcut of John the Baptist on title verso, full-page woodcut of the author shown holding open his book and pointing to two text illustrations on a2r within 4-part border, portrait repeated on final verso without border, white-on-black woodcut of a bird at end of preface, and 51 woodcut illustrations of birds, fish, animals, mythical beasts, a mermaid, and serpents, all within a variety of woodcut borders, ornamental woodcut initials, lombard initials. (Light sprinkled stains on a1.8, occasional light spotting, short marginal tear on a8.) Unbound, in modern maroon morocco portfolio, marbled paper slipcase. Provenance: Otto Schaefer (sale Sotheby's, 8 December 1994, lot 27).
SECOND LATIN EDITION. The bestiary was one of the most popular picture books of the Middle Ages. Bestiaries set out the moral, didactic lessons to be learned from nature. Each animal is depicted and described, and a moral drawn from its natural habits. All bestiaries derive from a common Greek source, the Physiologus, written perhaps as early as the 2nd century and circulating in Latin translation by at least the 6th century. In transmission the text attracted many accretions and underwent many revisions; the present printed compilation describes 52 animals, some mythic such as the phoenix and the unicorn, and begins with man, the highest and noblest of creatures, who has the gift of God-given wisdom. The work is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Albertus Magnus, named here in the verse address to the reader, but he is just one of the many authors whose natural history works influenced the compilation.
The striking woodcuts are those which were first used by Vincenzo Berruerio at Mondovì for the first Latin and Italian editions of the work in 1508. Giuseppe and his brother Girolamo took over the shop - and the printing materials - at Mondovì in 1512, and Giuseppe moved it to Savona in 1521. For the 1524 edition the black grounds of the woodcuts have been largely cut away, a few have been transposed, and two of the original series have been omitted. McCulloch located only FOUR OTHER COPIES of the present edition (Milan, Brera library; London, British Library; De Marinis collection; E.P. Goldschmidt, cat. 38); the first Latin edition is known in only 4 copies and the first Italian edition survives in one unique copy. Cf. Mortimer, Harvard Italian 55 (Latin ed., Mondovì: 1508); 5 Jh. Buchill. 73 (1508 Italian ed.); F. McCulloch, 'The Waldensian Bestiary and the Libellus de Natura Animalium,' Medievalia et humanistica, fasc. XV, 1963, 15-30. Kristeller, Lomb. Graphik, 8c; Sander 185.
4° (202 x 141mm). Collation: a-d8. Gothic type. 4-part woodcut border and magister-cum-disciplis block on title, full-page woodcut of John the Baptist on title verso, full-page woodcut of the author shown holding open his book and pointing to two text illustrations on a2r within 4-part border, portrait repeated on final verso without border, white-on-black woodcut of a bird at end of preface, and 51 woodcut illustrations of birds, fish, animals, mythical beasts, a mermaid, and serpents, all within a variety of woodcut borders, ornamental woodcut initials, lombard initials. (Light sprinkled stains on a1.8, occasional light spotting, short marginal tear on a8.) Unbound, in modern maroon morocco portfolio, marbled paper slipcase. Provenance: Otto Schaefer (sale Sotheby's, 8 December 1994, lot 27).
SECOND LATIN EDITION. The bestiary was one of the most popular picture books of the Middle Ages. Bestiaries set out the moral, didactic lessons to be learned from nature. Each animal is depicted and described, and a moral drawn from its natural habits. All bestiaries derive from a common Greek source, the Physiologus, written perhaps as early as the 2nd century and circulating in Latin translation by at least the 6th century. In transmission the text attracted many accretions and underwent many revisions; the present printed compilation describes 52 animals, some mythic such as the phoenix and the unicorn, and begins with man, the highest and noblest of creatures, who has the gift of God-given wisdom. The work is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Albertus Magnus, named here in the verse address to the reader, but he is just one of the many authors whose natural history works influenced the compilation.
The striking woodcuts are those which were first used by Vincenzo Berruerio at Mondovì for the first Latin and Italian editions of the work in 1508. Giuseppe and his brother Girolamo took over the shop - and the printing materials - at Mondovì in 1512, and Giuseppe moved it to Savona in 1521. For the 1524 edition the black grounds of the woodcuts have been largely cut away, a few have been transposed, and two of the original series have been omitted. McCulloch located only FOUR OTHER COPIES of the present edition (Milan, Brera library; London, British Library; De Marinis collection; E.P. Goldschmidt, cat. 38); the first Latin edition is known in only 4 copies and the first Italian edition survives in one unique copy. Cf. Mortimer, Harvard Italian 55 (Latin ed., Mondovì: 1508); 5 Jh. Buchill. 73 (1508 Italian ed.); F. McCulloch, 'The Waldensian Bestiary and the Libellus de Natura Animalium,' Medievalia et humanistica, fasc. XV, 1963, 15-30. Kristeller, Lomb. Graphik, 8c; Sander 185.
Special notice
This lot will not be subject to VAT either on the hammer price or the buyer's premium.