Adamantius, Physiognomonica, Paris, Conrad Neobar, 1540, later red morocco gilt

Property from the Loverdos Collection

Adamantius

Physiognomonica. Paris: Conrad Neobar, 1540

small 8vo (128 x 82mm.), woodcut device on title-page, text in Greek, late nineteenth-century red morocco gilt, gilt edges, occasional light foxing, small adhesive label to upper cover

FIRST EDITION, RARE. Adamantius was a late fourth-century Jewish physician from Alexandria and his work on physiognomy was based on (or perhaps paraphrased) a second-century text by Polemo of Laodicea. The first section deals just with eyes, and the second section covers the other parts of the body. There is a printed note on the verso of the title-page stating that the manuscript used was from the library of the bishop of Lavaur, Georges de Selve (1508-1541), one of the sitters of Holbein's The Ambassadors, who had been ambassador to Venice in the later 1530s where he purchased Greek manuscripts.

The printer, Neobar, was appointed royal printer in 1539, though he died shortly after in 1540, to be succeeded by Robert Estienne. His device of a snake twisted around a staff is similar to the one later used by Estienne for his Greek printings.

See lot 7 for another edition containing the text of Adamantius and Polemo.

LITERATURE

USTC 147718

PROVENANCE

K.S. Staikos, bookplate