[Rarebooks] FS: Pliny's HISTORIE OF THE WORLD, 1601

[Charles Agvent]

Just put this on the shelf in booth D-8 at the New York Book Fair at the 
Park Avenue Armory at 67th St., open to the public April 7 - 10. Please 
visit.

PLINY. THE HISTORIE OF THE WORLD, COMMONLY CALLED THE NATURALL HISTORIE 
OF C. PLINIVS SECVNDVS. London: Adam Islip, 1601. Second Edition. Two 
folio (8-1/4" x 12-1/2") volumes bound in one in early full tree calf 
with a gilt-decorated spine and a red morocco gilt-lettered spine label, 
recently and neatly rebacked; [42], 614, [42] + [12], 632, [84]: Lacks 
several leaves: the front and rear blanks, The Dedicatory Letter, The 
Preface to the Reader, the errata leaf to the first volume, The Preface 
or Epistle Dedicatorie to Prince Vespasian, and the advertisement leaf 
at the end. Translated from the Latin original by Philemon Holland. THE 
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of this foundational book of science, the 
greatest scientific work to emerge from the Roman Empire. In 37 books, 
Pliny compiled an encyclopedia of the accumulated wisdom of his time in 
fields as diverse as mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography, 
ethnography, medicine, zoology, anthropology, physiology, philosophy, 
history, agriculture, mineralogy, art history, and literature. “The 
’Natural History’ of Pliny the Elder is more than a natural history: it 
is an encyclopedia of all the knowledge of the ancient world” (PRINTING 
AND THE MIND OF MAN). Among the many diverse subjects discussed by Pliny 
are mermaids, wine, witches, herbal medicines, skin care, and 
aphrodisiacs (“if the seed of that Mallow that runneth up in one stalke; 
bee reduced into powder and strewed upon that part of a woman which 
Nature hath hidden, shee will bee so wood after the companie of a man, 
as she will never be satisfied nor contented with embracing”). “As a 
purveyor of information both scientific and non-scientific, Pliny holds 
a place of exceptional importance in the tradition and diffusion of 
Western culture” (DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY). Pforzheimer 496. 
First title page with early signature and neatly laid down on paper. But 
for the missing preliminary matter, a Fine copy, bright and clean.

The Natural History is among the single largest literary works to 
survive from antiquity. It is also the only work extant of the 132 
written by Pliny, an indefatigable seeker of knowledge who lost his life 
in 79 A.D. while trying to observe at close hand the eruption of 
Vesuvius. $5,000.00

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