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Details
BIONDO, Michelangelo (1497-1565, or BLONDUS). De ventis et navigatione, libellus. Venice: Cominus de Tridino Montisferrati, 1546.
Small 4° (200 x 141mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, four woodcut illustrations in text, historiated initials. (Light, even browning, a few spots.) Blue morocco gilt by Emile Rousselle, gilt turn-ins (new endpapers).
FIRST EDITION OF BIONDO'S RARE TREATISE ON NAVIGATION. Americana Exchange and ABPC record only one copy at auction in the past forty years. It contains chapters on the causes and dangers of winds, the cardinal winds and the names of winds, storms, the influence of celestial bodies and a chapter on the dimensions of the earth. Chapter 23 introduces a new compass. 'The writer gives on fol. 14 ch. xxiii a careful description of the compass including theory and rules for use. The compass is called on fol. 15 pixis or buxulos, cf. the French boussole' (Wheeler). One chapter is devoted to America (folio 16: De navigatione oceani ad novum orbem). BM/STC Italy p.105; Harrisse 274; JCB (3) I:144; Libri 341 ('one of the rarest books respecting America'); Sabin 5518; Wheeler Gift 24 ('very rare').
Small 4° (200 x 141mm). Woodcut printer's device on title, four woodcut illustrations in text, historiated initials. (Light, even browning, a few spots.) Blue morocco gilt by Emile Rousselle, gilt turn-ins (new endpapers).
FIRST EDITION OF BIONDO'S RARE TREATISE ON NAVIGATION. Americana Exchange and ABPC record only one copy at auction in the past forty years. It contains chapters on the causes and dangers of winds, the cardinal winds and the names of winds, storms, the influence of celestial bodies and a chapter on the dimensions of the earth. Chapter 23 introduces a new compass. 'The writer gives on fol. 14 ch. xxiii a careful description of the compass including theory and rules for use. The compass is called on fol. 15 pixis or buxulos, cf. the French boussole' (Wheeler). One chapter is devoted to America (folio 16: De navigatione oceani ad novum orbem). BM/STC Italy p.105; Harrisse 274; JCB (3) I:144; Libri 341 ('one of the rarest books respecting America'); Sabin 5518; Wheeler Gift 24 ('very rare').
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