Aelianus, Varia Historia, Rome, 1545, armorial calf for Herbert of Cherbury, Powis copy

AELIANUS, CLAUDIUS

Ιστοριας βιβλια ΙΔ... variae historiae libri XIIII [and other works]. Rome: Antonio Blado, (January 1545)

4to (218 x 153mm.), woodcut device on title-page, text in Greek, with blank leaf 3/3, final leaf (3/4) containing device and colophon only, seventeenth-century English calf with the arms of Edward Herbert of Cherbury (stamp 3), lower corner of ρ2 torn, binding slightly rubbed, lacking lettering-pieces

First edition of the Greek text of Aelian's early third century miscellany of random facts and anecdotes relating to Greek mythology and Greek writers and philosophers.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 316

PROVENANCE:

Edward Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648), arms on binding and manuscript cypher on title-page with the price 10 shillings; Powis, inscription on inside front cover, i.e. the second earl of Powis (1785-1848), sale, Sotheby's, 16 January 1956, lot 4, £20 to Breslauer