![CORVUS, Andreas (fl. late 14th/early 15th century). Chiromantia. [Lyon? c. 1515].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2013/NYR/2013_NYR_02706_0150_000(corvus_andreas_chiromantia_lyon_c_1515092728).jpg?w=1)
Details
CORVUS, Andreas (fl. late 14th/early 15th century). Chiromantia. [Lyon? c. 1515].
8o (130 x 95mm). Collation: a-l8. 88 leaves. Gothic type. Full-page woodcut of a chiromancer, perhaps the author, reading a man's palm, a third person looking on, full-page diagram of the lines on the palm of a hand, 154 white-on-black woodcuts of different palms, each with woodcut floral side-borders and letterpress interpretative text beneath. Contemporary French dark-stained flexible vellum over pasteboard, original endpapers, (foot of spine slightly defective, a few small wormholes). Provenance: three Latin mottoes in a 16th-century hand; Gibson (1515 and 1516 English purchase notes); Acquired from John F. Fleming, 1962.
This early and EXTREMELY RARE French edition of the original Latin text and another edition of the French translation are dated c. 1510 in the BM catalogues (GK3 and STC French), but a slightly later date is more probable, as the 1513 Venetian edition by Agostino de Zanni may be the first. The work is dedicated by the author, of whom nothing but this text appears to be known, to Gianfrancesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519), marquess of Mantua. Corvus's palmistry was specifically practiced for use in medicine and surgery. IN VERY FINE CONDITION. Cf. Sylvain Brunschwig sale catalogue (Geneva 1955), lot 381; see also, Thorndike V, p. 55.
8o (130 x 95mm). Collation: a-l8. 88 leaves. Gothic type. Full-page woodcut of a chiromancer, perhaps the author, reading a man's palm, a third person looking on, full-page diagram of the lines on the palm of a hand, 154 white-on-black woodcuts of different palms, each with woodcut floral side-borders and letterpress interpretative text beneath. Contemporary French dark-stained flexible vellum over pasteboard, original endpapers, (foot of spine slightly defective, a few small wormholes). Provenance: three Latin mottoes in a 16th-century hand; Gibson (1515 and 1516 English purchase notes); Acquired from John F. Fleming, 1962.
This early and EXTREMELY RARE French edition of the original Latin text and another edition of the French translation are dated c. 1510 in the BM catalogues (GK3 and STC French), but a slightly later date is more probable, as the 1513 Venetian edition by Agostino de Zanni may be the first. The work is dedicated by the author, of whom nothing but this text appears to be known, to Gianfrancesco II Gonzaga (1466-1519), marquess of Mantua. Corvus's palmistry was specifically practiced for use in medicine and surgery. IN VERY FINE CONDITION. Cf. Sylvain Brunschwig sale catalogue (Geneva 1955), lot 381; see also, Thorndike V, p. 55.