Lot 52
52
PARACELSUS (BOMBAST VON HOHENHEIM, THEOPHRASTUS, called). Prognasticatio Eximii Doctoris Theophrasti Paracelsi... [Augsburg?], 1536. Small 4to, nineteenth-century half purple morocco, spine in five compartments, title gilt-lettered in the second, the remainder with a gilt floral ornament, t.e.g., slight scuffing to extremities, fol. G1 headline shaved, scattered foxing. Collation: a4 A-I4. 40 unnumbered leaves (I4 blank). Half-title, "Marcus Titus ad lectorem" (in verse) on verso, 6-page preface, 32 half-page copper engravings, printed on rectos above the text of the prophecies or visions in italic, 6-page "Expositio Brevis Prognosticationis...". Bound in at end is a 33-page manuscript translation into French of the title, dedicatory verses, Preface and "Expositio", in a later sixteenth-century hand (some staining and foxing).

Details
PARACELSUS (BOMBAST VON HOHENHEIM, THEOPHRASTUS, called). Prognasticatio Eximii Doctoris Theophrasti Paracelsi... [Augsburg?], 1536. Small 4to, nineteenth-century half purple morocco, spine in five compartments, title gilt-lettered in the second, the remainder with a gilt floral ornament, t.e.g., slight scuffing to extremities, fol. G1 headline shaved, scattered foxing. Collation: a4 A-I4. 40 unnumbered leaves (I4 blank). Half-title, "Marcus Titus ad lectorem" (in verse) on verso, 6-page preface, 32 half-page copper engravings, printed on rectos above the text of the prophecies or visions in italic, 6-page "Expositio Brevis Prognosticationis...". Bound in at end is a 33-page manuscript translation into French of the title, dedicatory verses, Preface and "Expositio", in a later sixteenth-century hand (some staining and foxing).

"The 32 woodcuts of this famous book symbolize events relating to the kingdom of Ferdinand of Austria; they are interpretations of visions, not emblems proper... However the book is claimed to be an emblem-book by all catalogues... (Praz, p. 122, citing the more common 1536 edition, with a variant title, 24 leaves, and woodcuts instead of engravings). A particularly rare edition of a scarce book. Cicognara 1928; Sudhoff --; not in Durling, BM/STC German, or Adams.

Provenance: Frederick H. Rindge (1857-1905)