Iamblichus, Venice, Aldus, 1497, modern calf tooled in plateresque style, Olivares copy

IAMBLICHUS

De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum [translated by Marsilius Ficinus]. Proclus: In Platonicum Alcibiadem; De sacrificio et magia. Porphyrius: De divinis et daemonibus [and other works]. Venice: Aldus Manutius, September 1497

Super-Chancery folio (310 x 199mm.), 186 leaves, a-i⁸ k⁴; L-M⁶; N-O p-q R-Z⁸ &¹⁰, 37 lines plus headline, roman type, leaf a2 wrongly signed a3, last word on K2 "absente", modern leather with plateresque tooling, slipcase, marginal wormholes (some repaired), occasional slight damp-staining

FIRST EDITION of this collection of Neoplatonic works, translated from the Greek by Marsilio Ficino, and probably financed by Girolamo Biondo, a Florentine merchant-printer working in Venice. Ficino's preface is addressed to the young Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ij00216000; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 17; Renouard 13/6; UCLA 17

PROVENANCE:

Colegio de Carmelitas descalços del Angel de la Guarda, Seville, inscription on title-page describing the purchase of this book from the [widow of the] Conde Duque de Olivares in 1648; stamps of the library of Nuestra Señora de Regla, Chipiona (Cádiz), on title-page and final verso; Colección Alfageme-Fontanals, name on spine