MELA, Pomponio (fl. 43-50). Cosmographia, sive De situ orbis. Venezia: Franciscus Renner de Heilbronn, 1478 [Legato con:] DIONISIO il Periegeta (fl. 124 A.D.). De situ orbis. Tradotto da Antonius Beccaria. Venezia: Franciscus Renner de Heilbronn, 1478. - Fourth edition of Melas' De situ orbis, the earliest extant geography in Latin and the only Roman work devoted solely to the subject. Mela elaborated his description of the world with details - many fantastic - of the habits and customs of nations around the world. His knowledge of the positions of Britain, Ireland, and the coasts of Gaul and north Germany were superior to Strabo, and he was the first to mention the Orkney Islands (cf. E.H. Bunbury, A History of Ancient Geography, III, 1). This edition is ‘a very close reprint, in great part letter-for-letter, of Maler and Ratdolt’s edition of 1478’ (BMC). Second separate edition of Dionysius' didactic compendium of geographical descriptions of the known world. Here it is in the prose translation by the Veronese humanist Antonio Beccaria; Dionysius' work first appeared in print in a free verse translation in Priscian's Opera in 1470 before the first Beccaria edition of 1477. Good wide margins. 2 works in one volume, 4to (186 x 145mm). Woodcut white-on-black initials, headings printed in red on first page, c1v and e2v in first work and at the incipt of the second work (some light foxing and waterstaining). Later vellum, manuscript title on spine. The lot is accompanied by a export license.


Estimate € 6,000 - 9,000

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