CONTINENTAL BOOKS CATALOGUE 1448 - Maggs Bros. Ltd.

39 JOSEphUS (FLAVIUS) Opera... nunc vero ad exemplaria Graeca denuo
summa fide diligentiaq. collata... Basle, ex officina Frobeniana (per Ambrosium
et Aurelium Frobenios, fratres), 1567.
Woodcut printer’s device on title and last leaf
verso, fine large woodcut initials.
Folio (330 x230mm) [10]ff 910pp [13]ff (first blank).
Late 16th/early 17th-century limp vellum with
overlapping edges, blue cloth ties. £1,400
A Fine copy oF sigismund gelenius’
importAnt edition oF Josephus From the
librAry At steingAden Abbey, a revised version of
his edition of 1548. It begins with Gelenius’
dedication to the Augsburg patrician and
bibliophile Johann Jacob Fugger (1516-75),
Count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, dated
1548. There follows a short life of Josephus, and
the twenty books of De antiquitates Judaeorum
which covers the history of the Jews from the
creation to the outbreak of the war with Rome,
followed by the eight books of the De bello
Judaico, the history of the Jewish rebellion
of 67-73 AD, and the two books of De
antiquitatibus contra Appionem, a defence
against current misinterpretations of the Jews.
The final part De Machabaeis, is an account of
the martyrdom of Eleazar and of seven youths
and their mother in the persecution under
Antiochus Epiphanes; the attribution of this
piece to Josephus is doubtful. The Bohemian
humanist Sigismund Gelenius (c1498-1554) had
moved to Basle in 1524, where he first lived in
Erasmus’ household, and spent the remainder of
his life there working for the Froben press as
scholar, editor, corrector and translator from the
Greek. He worked on the editio princeps of
Josephus published by Froben in 1544.
Provenance: Premonstratensians of Steingaden,
Bavaria, founded in 1147, with their inscription
on title-page ‘In usum FF Steingadensium. Emptus
A 1649’, stamped monogram ‘SC’ on the upper
cover, spine and head of title-page, and engraved
armorial bookplate ‘Ex Bibliotheca Canonicorum
Premonstratensium in Steingaden’ dated 1786
inside front-cover. The monastery was dissolved in
1803 during the secularisation of Bavaria.
Duplicate from the Royal Library, Munich, with
their pencil mark ‘Dpl A 10362’ on fly-leaf.
VD16 J964. Adams J366. Schweiger p178.
40 LIBRO D’ORO BENI (ANDREA) Libro de Nobeli Veneti che vanno in
Gran Conseglio con l’origine, et arme delle loro famiglie: Aggiustato fino li 4 Agosto
1631 per Andrea Beni. (Venice, dalla Preggion Giustiniana, 9th September 1631).
Title-page with geometric border of squares in
brown, blue, yellow and red, two winged angels
at top corners and a shield with a centaur in the
middle; c160 fine armorial shields in
watercolour, only a very few blank.
Manuscript on paper. 4to (200 x 145mm) [9]ff 212ff
(of 213ff, f 41 torn away). Written in brown ink with
first capitals in red, in a neat scribal hand.
Contemporary limp vellum. £5,500
A remArkAble survivAl oF A venetiAn
politicAl guidebook, an essential reference
tool for members of the Gran Conseglio who
needed up to date information on their fellow
counsellors and their families. This Libro d’oro
was commissioned by Senator Francesco Pisani,
Podesta of Padua, with a three page dedication,
and the Pisani arms are pasted inside the front
cover. The details of births and marriages are
given for 145 families who had members in the
Gran Conseglio, as well as a brief history and
well executed armorial shields in watercolour
for each family. The Errizo family also has the
distinction of the Doge’s corno ducale or cap
being added in red at the head of their entry as
Francesco Erizzo had been elected Doge on 10th
April 1631.
The copyist Andrea Beni, who signs his name
on the title-page and at the end of the dedication,
also produced another Libro d’oro, now in the
Museo Correr (Cod Cicogna 18), and signed it
‘Questa libro su fatto da me Andrea Beni
preggion nella giustigiana’ (dated 20 January
1631). Both were therefore completed in the
Giustiniana, the name attributed in the 17th
century to a section of the ducal prison. The
Giustiniana served as a form of model prison for
20-30 citizens imprisoned for minor crimes and
debts. They were mostly educated persons and
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