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Details
PLINIUS SECUNDUS, Giaus (Pliny the Elder, 23-79 A.D.). Historia naturalis. Parma: Andreas Portilla, 8 July 1481.
Royal 2o (398 x 280 mm). Collation: a8 b6 c-e8 f6 g-h8 i-l6 m-y8 z6 &4 A-F8 G6 aa-dd8 ee6. 267 leaves (of 268, lacking the final blank, the first blank present but loose). 58 lines. Roman type 4:99. 15-line illuminated initial L and coat-of-arms (gilt rubbed) on a3r and 12-line illuminated intitial L on C1r; spaces for initials with printed guide-letters. (Some worming at beginning and end occasionally catching letters, a few leaves lightly browned or with some pale dampstaining.) Later vellum (very worn).
A tall copy of the third Parma edition of Pliny, reprinting Portilla's edition of the previous year. At least 46 editions of the Historia naturalis, the first great encyclopaedia of natural history, appeared during the first century of printing. Pliny's vast compilation, "a strange combination of insight, erudition, and folktales" (Stillwell, Science, p.684) and the only extant work of over 100 works said to have been composed by him, comprised 37 books covering cosmology, geography, anthropology, medicine, zoology, philosophy, history, agriculture, mineralogy and the arts. By his own count Pliny's sources numbered over 2,000, all of whom he scrupulously cited, from which he derived some 20,000 facts. At his death the work was still unfinished. With its extensive tables and indexes, the Historia naturalis fulfilled its author's ambition to create a universal reference book, and continued to be the object of study (and excessive reverence) well into the Renaissance. Books 12-27 relate to botany and medicaments, and include "large portions of the writings of two of the ancient herbalists, Diocles and Crataeus" (Anderson, p.17), which would otherwise not have survived. BMC VII, 937; HC 13094*; IGI 7885; Klebs 786.8; Oates 2573; Goff P-793.
Royal 2o (398 x 280 mm). Collation: a8 b6 c-e8 f6 g-h8 i-l6 m-y8 z6 &4 A-F8 G6 aa-dd8 ee6. 267 leaves (of 268, lacking the final blank, the first blank present but loose). 58 lines. Roman type 4:99. 15-line illuminated initial L and coat-of-arms (gilt rubbed) on a3r and 12-line illuminated intitial L on C1r; spaces for initials with printed guide-letters. (Some worming at beginning and end occasionally catching letters, a few leaves lightly browned or with some pale dampstaining.) Later vellum (very worn).
A tall copy of the third Parma edition of Pliny, reprinting Portilla's edition of the previous year. At least 46 editions of the Historia naturalis, the first great encyclopaedia of natural history, appeared during the first century of printing. Pliny's vast compilation, "a strange combination of insight, erudition, and folktales" (Stillwell, Science, p.684) and the only extant work of over 100 works said to have been composed by him, comprised 37 books covering cosmology, geography, anthropology, medicine, zoology, philosophy, history, agriculture, mineralogy and the arts. By his own count Pliny's sources numbered over 2,000, all of whom he scrupulously cited, from which he derived some 20,000 facts. At his death the work was still unfinished. With its extensive tables and indexes, the Historia naturalis fulfilled its author's ambition to create a universal reference book, and continued to be the object of study (and excessive reverence) well into the Renaissance. Books 12-27 relate to botany and medicaments, and include "large portions of the writings of two of the ancient herbalists, Diocles and Crataeus" (Anderson, p.17), which would otherwise not have survived. BMC VII, 937; HC 13094*; IGI 7885; Klebs 786.8; Oates 2573; Goff P-793.