PANCIROLI (Guido). - Lot 111

PANCIROLI (Guido). Livre premier des Antiquitez perdues. Lyon, Pour Jacques Gaudion, 1617. In-12, bradel modern boards. Caillet, n°8271. - Guaïta, n°1938. First French edition of this encyclopedia of inventions and knowledge, by Paduan historian and jurist Guido Panciroli (1523-1599). The work is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to the lost or forgotten things of the classical world: obsidians, specular stones, the barbarian leaf, precious stones, amphitheatres and theaters, bookshops or libraries (the author tells us that in the library of Constantinople were 120,000,000 books, among which was Homer's Ililade & Odyssey, written in letters of gold in the intestine of a dragon!), baths, triumphal arches, pyramids, copper, manageable glass, paper, music and more. The second part describes things newly invented & previously incogneües: the discovery of America, alchemy, distillations, typography, rhubarb, coffee, squaring the circle, falconry, liqueurs, etc. Stains to a few leaves.