Natalis Comitis Mythologiae Sive Explicationum Fabularum Libri Decem. In Quibus Omnia Prope Naturalis et Moralis Philosophiae Dogmata in Veterum Fabulis Contenta Fuisse Perspicue Demonstratur.. by Conti, Natale - 1616

Padua: Petrumpaulum Tozzium [Pierpaolo Tozzi], 1616. First Thus. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to. [...Opus Cuiusuis Facultatis Studiosis Perutile Ac Propre Necessarium. Accessit G. Linocerii Musarum Mytholgia, & anonymi observationum in tota de diis gentium narrationem libellus. Adiectae sunt insuper novissimae huic, post Germanica & Gallicam, editioni elegantissimae Deorum imagines, & eruditissimae mythologie M. Antonio Tritonii Utinensis. Omnia summo studio, & exquisito labore emendata. Patavii, apud Petrumpaulum Tozzium.] [xliv], 614 p.p., [ii], 60 p.p. Large woodcut arms on title page, folding woodcut plate of the heavens before p. 1, and two full-page and over 100 half-page woodcut illustrations in the text. Early patterned boards, later calf spine. A little bit spotted and water stained. Some wear to boards at edges, bumping to corners, and rubbing to calf. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, and thus a very important edition of the most influential mythography of the late Renaissance--and indeed the whole Baroque period. This text was used as a source by Ronsard and others of the Pleiade in France, as well as by George Chapman and Francis Bacon in England; but on artists its influence was equally profound, especially once it appeared in illustrated editions. Art theorists, too, took the work as a fruitful source: Lomazzo in particular lifted great portions for his section on iconography. The early editions (it first appeared in 1561) were unillustrated, but here for the first time the reader would be able to see a graphic image of what had previously only been described in text. The previous year the celebrated antiquarian Lorenzo Pignoria (1571-1631) had collaborated with the Paduan printer Pierpaolo Tozzi to produce a scholarly and much augmented edition of Cartari's Imagini. Some of the woodcuts used for that work appear again here in an equally well-prepared edition which incorporates other relevant text. For a full discussion of the work and its great influence, see Jean Seznec's "Survival of the Pagan Gods" (1953). Cataloguing description laid in.