[Rarebooks] Italian Edition of a Literary Forgery

[Kenneth Karmiole]

Nanni, Giovanni (also known as Annius, Johannes, of Viterbo).
Le Antichita di Beroso Caldeo Sacerdote, et d'altri Scrittori, cosi Hebrei, como Greci &Latini, che Trattano delle Stesse Materie.  Tradotte, .... & Necessarie Annotationi, Illustrate da M. Francesco Sansovino.Venice: Altobello Salicato. 1583.4to.  ff. (8),104 misnumbered (i.e. 112).  Large woodcut device on title.  Early calf, rebacked.  A clean very good copy, with the 18th century armorial bookplate of "the Right Honourable Wilmot Earl of Lisburn".
$500
A nice Italian edition of Nanni's "Antiquitatum Variarum", a literary forgery.  Nanni claimed that he discovered manuscripts of Berossus (c.300 B.C.) and other ancient authors, but in fact the text was written by Nanni himself (1437-1502), a Dominican friar and a forger of documents.  This work was first printed in 1498 (two editions, Venice and Rome). 


Kenneth KarmioleP.O. Box 464Santa Monica, CA 90406310-266-1910; kkarmiole at yahoo.com