Auction Closed
July 11, 03:42 PM GMT
Estimate
800 - 1,200 GBP
Lot Details
Description
LIPSIUS, JUSTUS. De bibliothecis syntagma. Antwerp: Jan I Moretus (Officina Plantiniana Moretorum), 1602
FIRST EDITION of the first systematic treatise on the history of libraries since antiquity. Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) writes on important libraries in Egypt, Alexandria, Byzantium and Rome, alongside private libraries, focusing on the works housed there, systems of organisation and architecture. This first edition was issued in 1,150 copies.
4to (253 x 170 mm). Roman and italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-C4 D6 (final verso blank): 18 leaves. Copper-engraved Plantin device on title-page, woodcut initials. (Leaves evenly browned, rust-hole to D2 affecting 1 letter.)
binding: Contemporary limp vellum (262 x 185 mm), manuscript title along tail-edge. (Some tears and stains to binding.)
provenance: Julien Stirling, Strasburg, nineteenth-century ex-libris. acquisition: Purchased in 2003 from E.K. Schreiber, New York. references: USTC 1003389
