Apr 11, 2024 - Sale 2665

Sale 2665 - Lot 93

Price Realized: $ 594
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
Estienne, Henri (1528-1598)
A World of Wonders: Or an Introduction to a Treatise Touching the Conformitie of Ancient and Moderne Wonders.

Edinburgh: Imprinted by Andrew Hart and Richard Lawson, 1608.

Second edition in English, folio, two parts in one volume; a translation of Estienne's 1566 Apologie pour Hérodote; translator's dedication signed R.C., attributed to Richard Carew; woodcut arms to title; bound in paneled brown sheepskin, crudely rebacked some time ago; signs of 19th and 20th century owners inscribed on endleaves; signature trimmed from blank upper margin of title; title page mounted on a cloth tape guard; final leaf with errata formerly mounted, now imperfectly torn away, with sections around the margin still adhering to mounting leaf; D2 & D3 with marginal tears repaired with pale tan translucent gummed paper tape; Y1 small portion torn from the blank fore-margin; 10 3/4 7 1/4 in.

In his attempt to emphasize the value of Herdotus's contributions to our knowledge of the ancients, Estienne constructed this series of comparisons between ancient and modern wonders. In the process, he developed a snappy satire of his own times, one that got him into hot water with local religious authorities in Geneva, and eventually lead to his arrest and the censure of his work.

STC 10553; ESTC S121359.