Month: November 2015

April 7, 2012

The First Major Account of Discoveries and Invention in the NEW WORLD

PRINTED 1646:  2 VOLS in 1:   “The history of many memorable things lost”

The Book:

[SCIENTIFIC INVENTION] [THE NEW WORLD] [EARLY ENCYCLOPEDIA] Pancirolli, Guido ;  Salmuth, Heinrich];  Guidonis Pancirolli rerum memorabilium sive deperditarum pars prior[-liber secundus] : commentarijs illustrata, et locis prope innumeris postremum aucta, Publisher: Francofurti : sumptibus Godefridi Schonwetteri, 1646.   The title-page is engraved.Title of v.2 reads: Nova reperta sive rerum memorabilium recens inventarum, & veteribus plane incognitarum … liber secundus. The second part completed by Heinrich Salmuth. 2 vols in 1.  COMPLETE. 2 vols in 1.  Small 4to, 21 cm.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, some chaffing to inner front board, small hoel to blank flyleaf, minor upper inner marginal stain to first few leaves, t.p. lightly browned, some light browning throughout,  last few leaves with some wear to l.r. margins.  Overall an attractive copy that contains the often missing second volume on the New World. [SOLD]

Guido Panciroli of Reggio, was a professor of law at Padua and a scholar with immense antiquarian interests.  This treatise, which was translated into Latin with copious annotations by Henry Salmuth, is considered the second most important book on “inventions” and the first to really touch upon the new world in any detail.  It follows in the footsteps of  the Italian humanist Polydore Vergil (1470-1555) whose popular and oft-reprinted work, On Discovery (De inventoribus rerum, 1499), was the first comprehensive account of discoveries and inventions written since antiquity.  Here Panciroli and Salmuth treat many diverse subjects, including the New World  (“De Novo Orbe”- Panciroli was in fact one of the first to use the term new world), alchemy, spectacles, tournaments, clocks, porcelain, falconry, as well as many particulars including  “[Indian] knives made of stone, pictures made of bird feathers, and the famous Benzoar stone- that universal antidote for any poison.

 

posted in: Rare Books

April 7, 2012

PRINTED 1678: HISTORIOGRAPHY OF TYROL

A UNIQUE EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED COPY WITH 28 MAPS AND CITY VIEWS

The Book:
Brandis, Franz Adam.. Dess tirolischen Adlers immergrünendes Ehren-Kräntzel, oder, Zusammen gezogene Erzehlung jeniger schrifft-würdigsten Geschichten, so sich in den zehen nacheinander gefolgten Herrschungen der fürstlichen Graffschafft Tirol von Noë an, biss auff jetzige Zeit zugetragen.  Gedruckt zu Botzen [Bolzano] : Bey Paul Nicolaus Führer, im Iahr 1678. ||  Second part (with special register & pagination) has half-title: Dess tirolischen Adlers immergrunenden Ehren-Kra?ntzels, anderer Thail : handlent von den fu?rstlichen Stifften Trient vnd Brixen und so dann von dem Ursprung der vier Stande der furstlichen Graffschafft Tirol.|| Allegorical frontispiece and map drawn by author; twelve (12) engraved  plates display varying numbers of coats of arms.  Description: 4to., 20 cm;  [8], 234, [2], 224, [4] p., [14] leaves of plates (2 folded); 28 additional inserted maps and plates   UNIQUE EXTRA- ILLUSTRATED COPY: In additional to the 12 engraved heraldic plates, frontis. and map called for, this copy possesses 28 (TWENTY-EIGHT) fine folding Important Maps and Town Plans, carefully inserted into the relevant text sections, the majority signed in plate by the well known Augsburg Cartographer Gabriel Bodenehr (1664-1758).   18th century Calf, worn, text-block bowed, some toning and foxing.  Provenance: Important Brandenburg  provenance including heraldic ex-libris bookplate with motto “Mein Thun und Leben ist Gott ergeben (“My acts and my life are devoted to God”).  Ref: Graesse I, 519; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie III, 246.  VERY RARE; An ordinary edition with the 12 heraldic  plates only  appeared only 1 in 30 years of ABPC auction records.  [SOLD]

 

posted in: Uncategorized

April 7, 2012

FOLIO: PRINTED 1513: a “Sink of Lyes”

The Alcoran of the Franciscans- a Heap of Blasphemous Doctrines – a Sink of Lyes

VERY INFLUENTIAL ON THE SPANISH MISSION IN THE NEW WORLD

DEMONSTRATES THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF ST. FRANCIS IN RENAISSANCE ART AND LITERATURE

The Book:

[Liber conformitatum vite Beati Francisci ad vitam Jesu Christi, ed. J. Mapellus.] [Bartholomeus, de Pisis]. Opus auree [et] inexplicabilis bonitatis [et] continentie, conformitatu[m] scilicet vite Beati Fra[ncisci] ad vita[m] D. N[ost]ri Iesu [Christ]i. Impressum Mediolani : In edibus Zanoti Castilionei …, 1513.  (i.e.  Zanotto da Castiglione, Milan, August 18, 1513. ) COMPLETE. [12], 229, : ill. (woodcuts) . FOLIO.  29 cm.,  Early 20th century binding of brown goatskin and boards, raised bands, lightly blindstamped, vellum tipped corners, pasted-downs and blanks renewed, gothic type, two columns, title and another page printed in red and black, printer’s device, woodcuts, woodcut initials and borders; incuding  include  a magnificent woodcut of Christ and St. Francis, each carrying a cross, a splendid full-page “tree of conformity”, a smaller woodcut of Christ’s and St. Francis’ hands, nailed to the same Cross,Some occasional age-toning, browning, and scattered light worming,  Generally, a very good and attractive copy of a Rare work.  [SOLD]

One of the first and most striking aspects of this typographically beautiful book is its very remarkable North Italian woodcut initials, which lend great insight into early 16th century Italian publishing through the re-use of various blocks that circulated amongst publishers.

The work itself can be only fairly classified as a strange and unusual. The author attempted to establish parallels of the life  Francis of Assisi with that of Jesus. There are many fantastic tales detailed, but perhaps the author went too far by reinterpreting the Holy Scripture and detailing various prophesies about St. Francis’s life. Reformers noted these egregious liberties and blasted the work as “The Alkoran”.  It appeared, in part, under similarly colorful and disparaging titles in England; in 1550, as “The alcaron of the barefote friers, that is to say, an heap or number of the blasphemous and trifling doctrines of the wounded idole Saint Frances, taken out of the boke of his rules, called in latin, Liber conformitatum.” and again in 1679 as the  “Alcoran of the Franciscans, or a Sink of Lyes and Blasphemies collected out of the “Book of the Conformities”

Perhaps though the author’s enthusiastic re-interpretation of St. Francis may be better understood in light of St. Francis’ profound veneration and his growing influence on early Renaissance art and literature.  The Liber conformitatum , originally composed 1385, would place it comfortably between Giotto’s St.Francis Frescos and Giovanni Bellini’s Ecstasy of St. Francis (1475-1480) which similarly may not have corresponded to any  specific legend of the saint’s known life and which established new iconographic motifs.  So, reinterpretation and invention may have been the norm.

It is interesting as well to note the influencet he Liber conformitatum had on the New World. Specifically, Kallendorf cites documentation on the dissemination and influence of the Liber conformitatum  on the Franciscans of Mexico.   In 1533, at the request of Hernán Cortés, Carlos V sent the first Franciscan monks with orders to establish a series of installations throughout the country and the Liber conformitatum played a “significant part in their spiritual formation”  [Ref: Kallendorf. Hilaire.  A New Companion to Hispanic Mysticism, pg. 95]

 

posted in: Rare Books