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Stock# 108508
Description

With Early Woodcut Circular World Map

Very early Macrobius edition printed by Badius (after the first Badius edition of 1515), with a new introduction dated 1519, and with the addition of De die natali by Censorinus. The book is notable for its beautiful large woodcut map of the world on the recto of leaf XXII.

The volume begins with the commentary on the Somnium Scipionis from Cicero's De republicaa work widely read in the Middle Ages (leaves I-XXVII). This is followed by the Saturnalia, a dialogue divided into seven books that purports to be a conversation between distinguished Romans at a Saturnalia banquet in the house of Vettius Praetextatus in 384 (leaves XXVIII-XCI). At the end is Censorinus, De die natali (leaves XCII-C).

Macrobius's commentary on Cicero was "the most satisfactory and widely read Latin compendium on Neoplatonism that existed during the Middle Ages," with "lengthy excursuses on Pythagorean number lore, cosmography, world geography and the harmony of the spheres" (DSB).

World Map - with "Perusta" (burnt up) zone

The circular "zonal" world map - differing from Ptolemy's concept in that the world - is divided into climatic zones: a northern inhabited continent separated by an ocean from a southern continent. The polar regions are uninhabitable "frigida" zones of extreme cold. The middle zone is labeled "Perusta" (or burnt up) and separates the inhabitable areas of the world from the unknown southern continent. 

Macrobius adopted the Zonal concept and believed that a great equatorial ocean divided the earth into four quarters. This ocean flowed into two great circles, one north to south, and one east to west, and the collision of these flows was thought to be the cause of the rise and fall of the tides. The first printed Macrobian map from Brescia in 1483 illustrates this theory and has led to the statement that it is the first to show the ocean currents - Moecker.

Mike Moecker praises the wood block map used in the Badius editions:  

In 1515 Badius had a new block cut for his Paris editions. This block was used for all three Badius editions (1515, 1519, 1524) and was extremely well executed - Moecker. 

This particular version of the map is not recorded in Shirley (The Mapping of the World, 13).

De die natali by Censorinus, a 3rd-century Greek author, is his only surviving work; it includes a range of interesting information on various topics: embryology, numerology, music, chronology, astrology, and other matters. This work was first printed in Bologna in 1497. Badius first issued it in 1514 as part of a very rare collection of Opuscula.

The woodcuts:

This edition includes a number of very beautiful woodcuts, in the Venetian style, depicting, among other things, three astronomers observing the stars and two musicians: a lute player accompanying an organist. There are also nearly 150 fine criblée initials in various sizes.

There are a total of 16 woodcuts (including the world map):

  • A6 (recto):  three astronomers wielding measuring instruments
  • A7 (verso): Scipio on deathbed
  • B3 (verso): diagram
  • C5 (recto): circular astronomical diagram
  • C6 (recto): circular diagram
  • C6 (verso): musicians
  • C7 (verso): diagram
  • D1 (recto): circular map diagram
  • D2 (recto): circular map diagram
  • D3 (recto) world map
  • D8 (verso) group dining at table
  • G2 (verso) group dining at table (repeat)
  • G6 (verso) five seated men
  • H5 (verso) five seated men (repeat)
  • H8 (recto) five seated men (repeat)
  • K8 (recto) group dining at table (repeat)

For a table detailing known editions of the Somnium Scipionis, beginning with the first edition printed at Venice in 1472 - which didn't include a map - see Mike Moecker's article, "The Maps of Macrobius" in MapForum: "Had the [first] edition contained a map as all editions for at least the next century and a half did, it likely would have replaced the Isidore T-O map as the first printed map and the first printed world map. This unfortunate oversight by the printer of the 1472 edition (corrected in the next edition of 1482) denied the Macrobian map what arguably should be its rightful place in cartographic history."

Rarity

This 1519 Paris edition is very rare in the market. Only 2 noted as sold on RBH in the last 30 years.

Provenance

Ownership name in upper margin of title page: "Per Hierta / 1887"

Manuscript inscription in Swedish on front free endpaper: "De märkvärdiga teckningen och initialerna äro af stort intresse, särskildt natur-, 'mappenrulle i macerobius.' (Möjligen har det med hela Sachsiska vapnen) Per Hierde 1887."

"The remarkable drawings and initials are of great interest, especially the 'scroll map in Macrobius.' R. Gierde 1887."

Condition Description
Small folio. Contemporary blind-stamped tawed pigskin, sewn on double cords. Elaborately stamped in blind. Panel decorated with fluerons and portrait medallions. Endpapers renewed. Some wear to spine extremities and corners. Foliation: 5 unnumbered leaves, 100 numbered (Roman) leaves (without the last blank leaf). Collation: A-M8 N9 (lacks only final blank N10). Title within woodcut architectural border, with woodcut printer's device plus 16 woodcuts within text (some repeated), including a world map on f. XXII (with red outline hand color), and a diagram map of the five climatic zones on f. XX. A few defects to text leaves only: small notch cut from fore-edge margin of f. LXIII (printing unaffected); tiny burn hole to f. XCII (affecting a few letters of text); final two leaves (f. XCIX and f. C.) with paper damage causing some loss to text in lower part (f. XCIX) and upper fore edge margin (f. C). Some moderate dampstaining to lower portions of final dozen leaves. Occasional ink marginalia in an early hand. Overall quite clean internally, especially the leaves with the map and woodcuts. A nice example in a handsome early pigskin binding with a sharp clean impression of the circular world map. Ownership name in upper margin of title page: "Per Hierta / 1887."
Reference
Adams M74. European Americana 519/11. Sabin 43657. Renouard (Badius Ascensius) III: 53-55. Moecker, "The Maps of Macrobius", MapForum #4 (Winter 2004), pp. 26-30. Shirley, Mapping of the World 13 (ref).