‎FRANZ, WOLFGANG.‎
‎Historia Animalium Sacra In Qua Plerorumque Animalium Praecipuae Proprietates In gratiam Studiosorum Theologiae & Ministrorum.‎

‎Wittenberg, Schurer & Gormann, 1616. 8vo. In contemporary full vellum with triple ruled fillets to boards. Title in contemporary hand to spine. Inner hinges split. Wear and soiling to extremities. Previous owner's name in contemporary to spine. Internally nice and clean. (48), 888, (32) pp.‎

Reference : 61400

‎Third edition of this interesting and highly popular work offering a theological interpretation of natural history typical of the early 17th century, where natural phenomena were often seen through religious and moral symbolism. Editions appeared in Wittenberg in 1612, 1613, 1616,1621, 1624, 1633, 1642, 1659 and Amsterdam in 1643, 1654, 1665 “In 1612, the protestant theologian Wolfgang Franzius published a book entitled Historia animalium sacra. Franzius (Franz or Frantze, 1564–1628) was Probst [Rural Dean] of Wittenberg and professor of theology at the university. Wittenberg – the city where Luther had initiated the Reformation in 1517 – was still a stronghold for the Reformation, but the Catholic Counter-Reformation was a threatening reality. The Historia animalium sacra was widely read: A long series of editions appeared from 1612 until 1671, and an English translation was published in London in 1670. To later readers, Franzius’s work was presented together with extensive commentaries written by Johannes Cyprianus (1642–1723), professor of physics and later of theology in Leipzig.” (Roggen, Biology and Theology in Franzius’s Historia Animalium Sacra).‎