PLINE L'ANCIEN (Caius Plinius Secundus) - Lot 34

Lot n° 34
Go to lot
Estimation :
2500 - 3000 EUR
PLINE L'ANCIEN (Caius Plinius Secundus) - Lot 34
PLINE L'ANCIEN (Caius Plinius Secundus) The History of the World. Collated & corrected on several old Latin copies, both printed and handwritten, & enriched with annotations in the margin, serving for the conference & declaration of the ancient & modern names of the Cities, Regions, Simples, & other places & obscure terms included in it. Paris, Louys Giffart, Claude Morlot, & Robert Daufresne, 1622. 2 volumes in one folio of (13) ff. 516 pp. and (42) ff. of table; (10) ff. 569 pp. and (71) pp. of table: red morocco, triple gilt fillet, coat of arms in the centre, ornamented spine, olive-green title-piece, interior roulette, gilt edges (18th century binding). Defence and illustration of technical and scientific French. Translating Pliny's Histoire naturelle, one of the first encyclopaedias, meant rendering into French the multitude of technical and scientific terms at a time when the language was not yet fixed. In his epistle to the debonair reader, Antoine du Pinet of Bisontin gives an account of the difficulties he encountered "during the fifteen months that I have sweated after this work". He recalls "the discussions I had to have with peasants and craftsmen, such as smelters, arpailleurs, mine workers, miners, painters, glassmakers, potters, goldsmiths, picture makers, engineers, sledgehammers, carpenters, lapidaries, swordsmen, dyers, chyrurgists, and several others, to speak respectively according to the terms of each art, I am advised that it is a dream. As for the fact of the Simples & of the mineral things, God knows how tiresome the conference of the Authors has been for me. [...] My main purpose was to make the reading of Pliny so easy, that everyone could enjoy this treasure which had been hidden for so long from our French people. His translation was first published in 1562 in Lyon, by Claude Senneton, in two volumes in-folio. A very fine copy in morocco with the arms of King Louis XV. From the library of Du Plessis-Villoutreys, with bookplate. Small crack without missing on the edge of folio EE1, folio ZZ2 a little short at the head. Bottom of the first and last leaves of the volume rearranged. Some quires slightly faded or evenly browned, small wetness in the margin of some leaves. Small scratched spots at the bottom of the spine.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue