PHILOSTRATUS the LEMNIAN ( III ) - Blaise de VIGNERE ( translator ) :
Reference : 33725
" Paris, Chez Mathieu Guillemot, rue Sainct Jaques a la bibliotecque, 1637, in-folio, engraved title page + (16)nn pp + 921 pp + (47) nn pp with 67 large engravings (65 in the first part, 2 in second part = La Suite de Philostrate). Bound in contemporary full leather, rebacked, raised spine with gilt title, ex-library Brooklyn Library, James Bell collection, with green label on front cover and another label on the first paste-down, also on the first paste down an 18th century engraved ex-libris of D.F. Du Meiz , Praepositi B.M.V. Erfordiae. The words '' Brooklyn Public Library '' neatly perforated on the title and pp. 97, marginal loss of paper on pp. 15, 19, 547, no loss of text, clear old waterstains in the margin of the index pages. Notwithstandings these defects still a fine/good and complete copy with fine printings of the plates. These plates were engraved by Leonard Gaultier and Thomas de Leu after designs by Antoine Caron and Jasper Isac. Third illustrated edition of Blaise de Vigenère's French translation of the Imagines of the Philostrati. The Imagines of the elder Philostratus is a description of sixty-four pictures in a gallery at Naples, the continuation by Philostratus III describes 17 pictures. Goethe, Welcker and Brunn among others have held that the descriptions are of actually existing works, Heyne and Friedrichs deny this. Vigenère's French translation with commentary was first published in 1578. It was an important iconographical source book in the 17th century. See Hofer, Baroque Book Illustration, 23. The Bibliothèque Nationale list 5 editions of this book each with a different date but with the same collation; 1614 , 1615, 1629, 1630, 1637. It should be ascertained that these are really different editions. We notice that the printer's name and date of publication are engraved on a small oval vignette which fits into the engraved title page."