Nov 08, 2007 - Sale 2127

Sale 2127 - Lot 288

Price Realized: $ 5,520
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
EPIPHANIUS, Saint. Ad physiologum . . . Eiusdem in die festo Palmarum sermo. Greek text and Latin translation by Gonzalo Ponce de León in parallel columns. Full-page engraved portrait of the author on b4v; 25 text woodcuts of animals, serpents, insects, and birds. [16], 122, [6] (of [10]) pages; lacks last two leaves (end of index and errata). 4to, old vellum with thong clasps and catches, recased; scattered light foxing, conspicuous stains in lower margin of opening leaves, title soiled, repaired clean tear in upper margin of H3, full-page description from bookseller's catalogue mounted on front pastedown. Rome: apud Zannettum & Ruffinellum, 1587
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first edition of a bestiary probably dating to the 2nd century A.D., but sometimes ascribed to Epiphanius, a 4th-century Bishop of Constantia. One of the most popular natural history texts of the Middle Ages, the Physiologus significantly enriched the iconography of emblem literature in the 16th and 17th centuries through its specifically Christian interpretation of the marvelous characteristics of various animals. Harvard/Mortimer-Italian 171; Hoffmann II, 27; Nissen ZBI 1301; Praz, page 328; Sarton I, 300; Thorndike I, 497-503.