Pliny & A. Cornelius Celsus | A Venice Sammelband of incunable editons of Pliny and Celsus, Venice, 1491, 1493

Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny, the Elder)

Historia naturalis. Ed: Philippus Beroaldus. Venice: Thomas de Blavis, de Alexandria, 3 November, 1491

Chancery folio (299 x 207 mm, preserving deckle on several lower edges). Roman types, 54 lines plus headline, 2- to 10-line initial spaces with printed guide letters, woodcut printer’s device on II8r. Collation: aa–bb⁸ a–d⁸ d⁸ e–z⁸ &⁸ ?⁸ Rx⁸ A–I⁸ II⁸: 308 leaves (aa1 blank).

REFERENCES

BMC V 319; Goff P796; GW M34324; ISTC ip00796000

[bound preceding:]

Celsus, A. Cornelius

De medicina. Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis, 8 July 1493

Super-Chancery folio (299 x 207 mm). Roman types, 61 lines plus headline, 2- to 10-line initial spaces with printed guide letters. Collation: a–i⁶k–l⁴: 62 leaves (a 1 blank).

REFERENCES

BMC V 417 (IB.23159); Goff C366; GW 6458; ISTC ic00366000; Norman 426

Together, 2 works in one volume. Scattered light marginal soiling in both. Contemporary blind-stamped pigskin over unbevelled wooden boards, two clasps catching on front cover; lightly worn, soiled, minor restoration to joints.

A very good pair of incunable editions of significant ancient authors. Celsus's De medicina, compiled in the first century, was first printed in Florence in 1478, "The De Medicina is the oldest Western medical document after the Hippocratic writings … and the first Western history of medicine. … [It] deals with diseases treated by diet and regimen and with those amenable to drugs and surgery. The manuscript of De Medicina was lost during the Middle Ages and re-discovered in Milan in 1443, … one of the first medical books to be printed" (Garrison-Morton 20, of the first edition).

PROVENANCE

Sotheby’s London, 1 December 1994, lot 504 (undesignated consignor)