Recent Acqusitions

2009

Montebarucio, Jacobus de. Inventario d'Instrumenti dificile / Jacobus filius condam Ser Lodovici de Montebarucio. [North Italy, between 1465 and 1468]. Physical Description: 105 (of 109) numbered paper leaves ; page size ca. 30 x 21.5 cm. (text size ca. 24 x 16 cm.), bound. Ms. codex. Title (in Italian) at the beginning from a later hand (18th century?), and additional text, also in Italian, on the last page in the same hand. The paper has two watermarks; one depicting a scale with four compass points connected with half circles and a hanging "b" with a line through it within a circle. Paper is uncut; a few leaves are loose. Script: Italian chancellery-italic in brown ink with extensive use of abbreviations. An added bifolium with 3 pages of text in the same hand is tipped in. Binding: 18th century limp vellum wrappers taken from another work. Open for research; material must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use. Extensive collection of notary's office instruments from the years 1465 to 1468, dealing with contracts and sales agreements from Ravenna and Udine. Once the abbreviations are expanded, the statement of responsibility would read, "Ego Jacobus filius condam Ser Lodouici de Montebarucio publicus imperiali auctoritate notarius predictis omnibus interfui et rogatus scripsi." It roughly tanslates to, "I, Jacob, son of the late Ser Luigi de Montebarucio, public notary by imperial authority, being present and having been invited, wrote all of the preceding." If Montebarucio is the same as the modern Italian village of Mombaroccio, the references to Ravenna and Udine would fit. MSS CODEX 1051 F

Petrus, Comestor, 12th cent.
Historia scholastica : manuscript fragment. [France, mid-14th century]. 1 bifolium (a total of 8 columns of 38 lines each) :vellum; 29 cm. Note: Gothic script, brown ink.Note: Ruled lightly with plummet, rubrics filled in but spaces for two-line initials left blank. Summary: The HISTORIA SCHOLASTICA is a continuous biblical history from the Creation to the Ascension based on the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Acts, supplemented by references to the Church Fathers and other authors. This text contains commentaries on I Kings 23-4, and II Kings 10-12, and deals extensively with King David, including his adultery and murder of Uriah. M1683. Related manuscrits M1682, SCMS 791211 00002

Italy. Leaves from a lectionary: manuscript on vellum, circa 1190. Physical Description: 2 leaves ; 31 x 21 cm Note: Double columns of 28 lines written in careful calligraphic hand in brown ink, on vellum, rubrics in red with some green, prickings visible on outside edge of page. Note: Open for research; material must be requested at least 24 hours in advance of intended use. Summary: A lectionary contains a collection of scripture readings appointed for worship on a particular day. This text includes a portion of Deuteronomy:1 and Ezekiel:18. Note: Purchased, 2009. Accession 2009-125. Note: Latin. Subject (LC): Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval--Italy. Subject (LC): Manuscripts, Latin--Italy. Genre: Lectionaries. Subject (Other): Medieval and renaissance studies--Italy--12th century.  M1678

Spain. Fragment from a large book of psalms: manuscript on vellum, 15th century.  Physical Description: 2 map folders (11 leaves; 3 loose and 2 (in 8s) ; 80 x 57 cm.) Note: 12 lines written in black ink in large gothic bookhand, double-ruled in blue or purple (from the mollusk). Rubrics in red, some with multiple colors. Note: Open for research; material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Summary: This is a decorated fragment from a large book of psalms comprising a portion of Psalms 8 and 9. Note: Purchased, 2009. Accession 2009-120. Subject (LC): Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval--Spain. Subject (LC): Manuscripts, Latin--Spain--15th century. Genre: Psalms (Music) M1677

British History Online, published by the Institute for Historical Research. Includes inter alia Parliament Rolls of Medieval England Transcriptions from the manuscript rolls of all parliaments which survive for the period 1275 to 1504. The transcriptions - in Latin, Anglo-Norman or Middle English - are presented in parallel with a modern English translation. There is also a description of each parliament of the period, including for those of which no roll survives.

2008

Jacobus, de Voragine, ca. 1229-1298.
Legenda Aurea: manuscript codex. Incipit prologus sup legendas sanctorum quas compilant ...iacobus ... Lyon (France) : De Gaselle (scribe), 1468 Sep 1. 1 v. (804 p - 399 leaves). The author titled the work "Legenda Sanctorum" but it soon became known as "Legenda Aurea" because the people of the time considered it worth its weight in gold. In some of the earlier editions it is titled "Lombardica Historia" which gave rise to the false opinion that this was a different work from the "Golden Legend." First leaf has illuminated 9-line initial in blue on gold ground with decorated border. Rubricated initials are throughout; also chapter headings in red.Script is a cursive bookhand. Text in two columns with 37 lines. Binding: period style modern blind-tooled paneled calf with blind-tooled spine; contemporary brass clasps. Bound mostly in 12's with catchmarks on verso of last leaf of each gathering. Contemporary collation marks in lower right corner. Bifolium a1 and conjugate leaf a12 on vellum, single leaf i4 on vellum; all else on paper.Watermark is a grape cluster device similar to Briquet 12996. Dated colophon on verso of i2. The work was first printed in Basel in 1470. By 1500 at least 74 Latin editions had been published as well as three translations into English, five in French, eight Italian, fourteen Low German, and three Bohemian. Summary: A collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medieval church. Text complete. Purchased, 2008. Accession 2008-281. Jacob of Varagine or Voragine (Italian: Giacomo da Varazze, Jacopo da Varazze (c. 1230 – July 13 or July 16, 1298) was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. His Golden Legend was one of the most popular religious works of the Middle Ages. In Latin. Catkey 7684046

Archivio di stato.
Pandette dei notai antich. Genoese notarial records dating from before 1300 A.D. 108 microfilm reels [MFILM N.S. 16809]. Catkey: 7149311.

Catholic Church. Pope (1417-1431: Martin V).
Papal bull issued by Pope Martin V to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Bertin at St. Omer, granting permission for the monks to elect their own confessors. Rome, January 3rd, 1421. 1 vellum sheet with seal, matted : 49 x 31 cm. Purchased, 2008. M1638. Catkey: 7619994.

Brancaccio Family. [Account book of the Italian Brancaccio family: January 1624 to April 1637, being a ledger of rents and taxes collected] [Rome?, 1637?]. Acquired on the Kenyon Law Starling Fund. An account book of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Italy; The Brancaccio family founded the Brancacciana Library at Naples and had seven family members appointed cardinals of the church.  This ledger runs from January 1624 to April, 1637, and includes details of monies and goods collected, possibly on behalf of the church.  Several notable names appear in the ledger, including Medici, Piti, and Borgia. England and Wales. Sovereign (1603-1625: James I) [Vellum document with the great seal of King James I London? May 8, 1615. Acquired on the Kenyon Law Starling Fund

In this document James I (1566-1625) re-grants lands in England and Wales of William Rogers, deceased, to Rogers' gentleman son and heir, also named William Rogers.  The seal, still present, is large, intricate, and very well preserved.  It was designed by the Royal Minter Charles Anthony in 1603, was used a few times by James' son Charles I (1600-1649), and was the seal held by Francis Bacon as Keeper of the Great Seal from 1617-1622.  This land grant, dated 1615, is on vellum, fifty-two lines in a large chancery hand.

Catholic Church. Pope (1623-1644: Urban VIII)
Bulla de indulgencia plenaria concedida para las animas de los fieles difuntos, per la santidad de Paulo Quinto . . . [ Madrid, 1633]. Acquired on the Kenyon Law Starling Starling Fund. A plenary indulgence (in Catholic doctrine, an indulgence which remits the entire temporal punishment resulting from a sin so that no further expiation is required in Purgatory) issued by Pope Urban (Maffeo Barberini, 1568-1644) in 1633. The recipient’s name is inked in; the indulgence is signed and authorized by Antonio de Sotomayor (d. 1648), Royal Confessor and Archbishop of Damascus. Single sheet, with papal woodcuts and the woodcut seal of Sotomayor. Pope Urban VIII was the last pope to practice nepotism on a grand scale, and many of his relatives benefited from his generosity. He canonized Elizabeth of Portugal and Andrew Corsini and issued the papal bull of canonization for both Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, both of whom had been canonized by Urban’s predecessor, Gregory XV. Urban VIII patronized art and learning on a large scale, bringing the polymath Athanasius Kircher to Rome, along with such painters as Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. Despite a friendship with Galileo and encouragement for his teachings, Urban summoned Galileo to Rome in 1632 to answer questions concerning the doctrines expounded in Galileo’s Dialogo, which had been published that same year in Florence, and which would result in a sentence of imprisonment for the rest of Galileo’s life.

[Notebook on rhetoric and poetics] [Italy? ca. 1610]. Acquired on the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund

A notebook covering the art of rhetoric and poetics, including the composition of speeches and letters (especially consolatory letters sent after various calamitous events). The longest section is the treatise on oratory, divided into nineteen chapters. Fifty leaves, with eight blank leaves at the end, bound in contemporary limp gilt panelled vellum and with a gilt armorial device on cover. The device may be that of the Virili family and this manuscript may have belonged to Cardinal Luca Antonio Virili (1569-1634, cardinal from 1629).

From the library of Lewis Spitz:

• Calvin, J. In Omnes Pauli Epistolas. Halis Saxonum, 1831. 3 v. [20]. OCLC: 8441107
• Knight, Samuel. The life of Dr. John Colet. London, 1724. [21]. OCLC: 4383230. Stanford has later ed.
• Walch, Johann Georg. Historische und theologische einleitung in die religions-streitigkeiten . . . 2 v. 1736. [22]. Stanford has reprint.
• Idem. 3 v. 1730. [22]. Stanford has film in German baroque literature.
• Geier, M. Praelectiones academicae in Danielem prophetam . . . Martino Geiero. Lipsiae, 1684. [23]. OCLC: 6507047
• Rambachs, Johann Jacob. Institutiones hermeneuticae sacrae. Krieger, 1738. [24]. OCLC: 8309569
• Mosheim, J.L. Elementa theologiae dogmaticae. Nuremburg, 1764. [26]. OCLC: 14176428
• Synchronistische tafeln der kirchengeschichte vom ursprunge des Christenthums bis auf die gegenwärtige zeit ... nach den bewährtesten hülfsmitteln ausgeführt, und mit einer kurzen uebersicht der begebenheiten versehen. Halle, Berlin, Buchhandlungen des Hallischen waisen-hauses, 1809. OCLC: 40211526
• V. illustris Bilibaldi Pirckheimeri, Consiliarii, quondam DD. Maximilianii ... Opera politica, historica, philologica, et epistolica ... /. 1610. OCLC: 57525138. SCRB 870323 00002

2007

Medieval Travel Writing. Catkey: 7134425

Processus contra Templarios (Scrinium, 2008). This facsimile reproduces the original documents from the Secret Vatican Archives containing the proceedings from the investigation and trials of the Knights Templars. Stanford researchers will be able to consult the facsimile in Green Library, Special Collections. Catkey 6987936

2006 The Frank J. Novak collection of early English documents, 1326-1701. Collection of Twelve English Manuscript Documents Dating from 1326 to 1701. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Novak This varied assortment features such things as an indenture (1577), army commissions (1688 & 1689), an indulgence (1441), a deed of gift (1326) and grant deeds (ca. 1415 and 1573), among others. All are written on vellum. The 1689 military commission is a printed document with blanks that have been filled in by hand with particulars. The two commissions (1688 & 1689), under the authority of Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk (1655-1701), are especially interesting: they each commission the same man, one Anthony Mingay, of Norwich, as a lieutenant in the “Regiment of the trained bands of the City of Norwich.” The Mingays were an important merchant dynasty in Norwich that dates back to at least the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The first commission is dated the “seventeenth day of November In this fourth yeare of the reigne of our Sovraigne Lord James the Second by the grace of God … 1688.” The second commission is dated “the 23rd day of July in the first yeare of the Reigne of our Soveraigne Lord and Lady King William and Queen Mary … 1689.” Mingay’s first commission was issued during the reign of James II. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James was forced off the throne in favor of William and Mary, of the House of Orange (Mary was the daughter of the Catholic James II, but was herself a Protestant; she married her first cousin William III in 1677); the commission was re-issued in this new reign. Norfolk’s commission as Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk lapsed with the departure of James II, and all of the commissions he had issued under James II lapsed as well, necessitating the second commission in 1689.

Andrea Alciati. Les Emblemes de seigneur Andre Alcia: de nouveau translatez en françois vers pour vers …. A Lyon: Chez Guill. Rouillé, 1549. Acquired through the Albert M. Bender Fund. Emblem books featured collections of symbolic pictures, usually accompanied by mottoes and expositions in verse and often by prose commentary as well. A development of the medieval allegory and bestiary, the emblem book enjoyed a tremendous popularity in 16-century Italy and by the 17 century was popular throughout Europe. The father of emblem literature was the 16th-century Italian lawyer and humanist Andrea Alciati, whose Emblemata was first published in 1531. Alciati’s work became a popular book in the Renaissance; revised by many editors and translated by various scholars, it appeared in more than 150 editions over the course of 100 years or so. This edition is rare, with the text in the French translation of Bartolemy Aneau. The publisher Ruoillé commissioned the woodcuts by Pierre Eskrich, in imitation of those done by Bernard Salomon for Jean de Tournes; while using the Salomon illustrations as a source, Eskrich expanded the scenes and added more detail. Apuleius. L’Amour de Cupido et de Psiché …. [Paris?]: Leonar. Galter. fec. & excu., [1590?]. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund Apuleius is best-known as author of Metamorphoses, or The Golden Ass, the only Latin novel to survive in entirety. It describes the adventures of a young man transformed through magic into an ass. The novel enjoyed great popularity and was printed in dozens of editions throughout the Renaissance. Many stories are embedded within the novel, stories that reappear in such works as Boccaccio’s Decameron, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and Alain Le Sage’s Gil Blas. The most famous of these stories is that of Cupid and Psyche, the story featured here. This French translation is fully engraved throughout, with a half-page illustration and engraved text below. The illustrations are by Leonard Gaultier (1561-1641).

Bible. Latin. 1574. Biblia, ad Vetustissima Exemplaria Nunc Recens Castigata … Venetiis: Apud Haeredes Nicolai Beuilaquae, & Socios, 1574. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund. This is a lavishly illustrated Bible; the fine woodcuts were inspired by a variety of sources, notably the three sets of woodcuts by Hans Holbein, Bernard Salomon, and Pierre Eskrich that first appeared in Lyons between 1538 and 1562 and were commonly used in Bibles and picture books. The text of this Bible follows the 1547 Louvain edition, edited by Johannes Henten.

Cantica Natalia: Viginti Hymni in Honorem Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi. Ditchling, Sussex: E Typographia S. Dominici, 1926. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund. Surely one of the grandest and most elaborate and beautiful books of Christmas carols ever produced, this volume is printed throughout in red and black, with plain-chant notation. The beautiful typeface and layout are complemented by wood-engravings by David Jones, Philip Hagreen and Desmond Chute. Saint Dominic's Press was founded about 1916 by Harry Douglas Clark Pepler (1878-1951), an English printer, writer and poet. Pepler converted to Roman Catholicism in 1916 and joined the Dominicans as a lay member in 1918, at which time he changed his name to Hilary. He was also a founder with Eric Gill and Desmond Chute in 1920 of a Catholic community of craftsmen at Ditchling, Sussex. St. Dominic’s Press became the private press of this community, and was well-known for its music printing: here familiar carols are transposed into a medieval, four-line stave format. The twenty one carols include "Adeste Fideles" and "Hodie Christus Natus Est" in the traditional setting which Benjamin Britten would use in his celebrated "Ceremony of Carols.”

Hablot Knight Browne. Illustrations to Shakespeare. London: [S.n., 18--]. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund This is one of only fifty copies with the plates colored. It has another set of the same plates, uncolored, bound in. This copy came from the library of Alistair Cooke, KBE (1908–2004), the legendary British-American journalist and broadcaster. Browne’s illustrations for Shakespeare first appeared in 1858 in a two-volume edition, appearing later in 1872 and 1882-1884 editions; all of these editions are considered rare.

Jean de La Quintinie. The Compleat Gard'ner, or, Directions for Cultivating and Right Ordering of Fruit-gardens and Kitchen-gardens: with Divers Reflections on Several Parts of Husbandry: in Six Books … Made English by John Evelyn, Esquire.London: Printed for Matthew Gillyflower, at the Spread Eagle in Westminster-Hall, and James Partridge, at the Post-house at Charing-Cross, 1693. A Gift of the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries This is the first edition of this translation of Jean de La Quintinie's Instruction pour les jardins fruitiers et potagers, a translation done by John Evelyn, with the assistance of Thomas Creech and George London. The work consists mainly of directions for fruit and kitchen gardens, with shorter essays on orange trees and melons. Evelyn created one of London's greatest gardens at Sayes Court, his home at Deptford; this led to his writing the Elysium Britannicum, an encyclopaedic history of gardens and gardening practices that occupied him for most of his life. Elysium also proved to be the catalyst for Evelyn's pioneering work on tree cultivation (Sylva, 1664) and on soils (A Philosophical Discourse of Earth, 1676). Evelyn is best remembered as a diarist and garden designer, but he was in fact interested in a wide range of scientific fields. Evelyn created many gardens, and his writings laid the groundwork for the English landscape garden of the eighteenth century.

Natale Conti. Natalis Comitis Mythologiae, sive Explicationis Fabularum, Libri Decem … Francofvrti: Apud Andreae Wecheli heredes Claudium Marnium & Ioannem Aubrium, 1584. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund This is an early edition of a very important guide to mythology, a guide that was enormously popular and influential from the late Renaissance into the Baroque period. It influenced literary authors such as Chapman and Bacon as well as artists and writers on art theory, who used it as a reliable and important source. Novi Testamenti Aeditio Postrema per Des. Erasmum Roterodamum …. Tiguri: In Officina Froschouiana, anno 1554. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund and the Robert L. Goldman Fund. This is a rare illustrated pocket edition of the New Testament. The text is edited by Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch humanist and theologian and a major figure of the Reformation. The copious illustrations are by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder (1490-1556), commissioned by the publisher Froschauer. These celebrated illustrations show great originality, though the woodcuts for the Apocalypse are based on Holbein’s designs and are executed by a hand other than Vogtherr’s. Ovid. P. Ovid Nasonis XV Metamorphoseon …. [Cologne]: Prostant apnd [sic] Crisp. Passaeum Chalcographum Coloniense[m] et Joannem Jansonium Typographum Arnhemiensem, Anno 1607. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund This is the second printing of Crispijn van de Passe’s extraordinary engravings illustrating the Metamorphoses of Ovid (43 B.C.–17 or 18 A.D.), with two couplets under each illustration. The engravings are published here for the first time with the letterpress text of Wilhelm Salsmann (fl. 1607-1629), in Latin and German in double columns, the text summarizing the subject of the illustrations. The book was published in Arnhem by Johannes Janssonius; the copperplate illustrations had been done in De Passe’s workshop in Cologne. De Passe (1564-1637) was a celebrated engraver, print publisher, and painter. His career began in Antwerp and one of his earliest achievements was a series of forty-six biblical illustrations engraved for the great Renaissance printer Christopher Plantin. These engravings from Ovid were done from his own and others’ designs, notably those of Bernard Salomon, Virgil Solis, Antonio Tempesta, and Hendrik Goltzius.

Ovid. Les Metamorphoses d'Ovide en latin et françois … Edition nouvelle, enrichie de tres-belles figures. A Amsterdam: Chez P. & J. Blaeu, Janssons à Waesberge, Boom, & Goethals, 1702. Acquired through the Fitger Williams Fund The Metamorphoses of Ovid (43 B.C-17 or 18 A.D.) stands as our best classical source for some 250 myths; it has been enormously popular throughout history and has never been out of print. Its stories have been the source of innumerable literary writings and art. This is a beautifully illustrated large folio edition of Ovid, featuring the Latin and French texts in double columns. The engraved illustrations are mostly by Martin and Paul Broche, and the extensive notes on the fables are by Pierre du Ryer (d. 1658), a member of the Academie Française. This translation was originally published in Brussels in 1677. Samuel Johnson. A Dictionary of the English Language …. The fourth edition, revised by the author. London: Printed by W. Strahan, for W. Strahan, J. & F. Rivington, T. Davies, J. Hinton, L. Davis ... [and 20 others], 1773. Acquired through the University Libraries Research Fund The achievement of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) in creating the first great English dictionary can hardly be overstated. This edition contains a large number of textual corrections and additions by Johnson, and while he may have intended further changes in the fifth edition, such changes exist only in manuscript. The many added quotations reflect Johnson's reading in the years between the first publication of the dictionary (1755) and 1773. Allen Reddick states: "Many of the new sources from which he borrowed were theological writers, and the cumulative effect of the new quotations and their accompanying definitions or notes on usage is to draw attention to a broader theological sense of the word in question ...." Johnson himself said "Many faults I have corrected, some superfluities I have taken away, and some deficiencies I have supplied. I have methodised some parts that were disordered, and illuminated some that were obscure."

David Loggan. Oxonia Illustrata ... Oxoniae: E theatro Sheldoniano, ano. Dni. 1675. A Gift of the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries Loggan (1634?-1692) was born in Danzig and studied there and in Amsterdam before coming to London in the 1650s. He was appointed “public sculptor” to Oxford University in 1669, when he began to draw and engrave this series of engravings which illustrate the Bodleian Library, the University schools, the newly-built Sheldonian Theatre, the University church, and the University's various colleges and halls. The volume is completed by panoramic views of the city from a distance, an excellent plan of the city in bird’s eye perspective, a plate illustrating the varieties of academic dress, and a plan of the University Botanic Garden. The engravings are highly esteemed for their combination of accuracy and visual attractiveness. This is an invaluable architectural, topographical, and social resource, and a landmark in the history of the illustrated book in England. Onofrio Panvinio. De Ludis Circensibus …. Patavii: Typis Petri Marie Frambotti Bibliop., 1681. Acquired through the Althea H. Warren Fund Panvinio (1529-1568), an erudite Augustinian, was a great historian and archaeologist of his time. This work is a treasure trove of information about the buildings of ancient Rome. The illustrations—thirty-six magnificent engraved plates—highlight such scenes as a panorama of the Circus Maximus on the Palatine Hill, a map of Rome and its theaters, and Caracalla’s great circus. The title-page itself is a triumph of illustration, featuring among other images chariot racing, fighting lions, and a mock naval battle. Panvinio included information not only on the buildings and monuments but also on ceremonies and transcriptions of inscriptions. He had a fine appreciation of antiquity in general and was one of the first historians to apply rational, historical criticism to the historical accounts he had discovered.

Gabriele Simeoni. Dialogo pio et speculatiuo con diuerse sentenze latine & volgari ... In Lione: Apresso Guglielmo Rouiglio, 1560. Acquired through the Antoinette and Warren R. Howell Fund This is the first edition of this important work in which Simeoni (1509-1575) endeavored to establish a link between devices (simple symbols, allegorical vignettes, or rebuses) and ancient medals: “Those figures which the ancient Romans used to stamp on the reverse side of their medals were nothing but devices, and sometimes maxims." Simeoni was from Florence, but fled to Lyon in 1556 having escaped from the Italian Inquisition. The illustrations are from the set attributed to Pierre Eskrich (ca. 1530-ca. 1590), designed for an edition of Guillaume du Choul's Discours de la religion des anciens romains but they include two new woodcuts (the tomb of Simeoni and the view of the château of Polignac).

Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Storia delle arti del disegno presso gli antichi di Giovanni Winkelman, tradotta dal tedesco e in questa edizione corretta e aumentata dall'abate Carlo Fea ... In Roma: Dalla stamperia Pagliarini, 1783-1784. Acquired through the Fitger Williams Fund Wincklemann’s Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums, a monumental text in the understanding of Greek art, was first published in 1764; it became the bible of neo-Classicism and was a major text in the 18th-century search for and reinterpretation of Classical Antiquity. Many of the contributions of Winckelmann (1717-1768) were remarkable, but his greatest contribution lay in his interpretations of the works of antiquity in which Greek art represented the ideal of perfect beauty. This edition of the translation of Carlo Fea (1753-1834) is significant in having Fea’s preface and commentary (absent in the first Italian edition of 1779) and more than fifty illustrations.

John Mustain, Rare Book Librarian John Rawlings, Medieval Studies