Icones veterum aliquot, ac recentium medicorum, philosophorum…. Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1574. *2, B-M6, N1. Engraved title-page, 67 engraved plates, 3 of which without portraits, 1 with portrait pasted in. Folio (319 x 222 mm). Contemporary limp vellum. Lacks final blank?, front endpapers with early notation, brief notation to title-page, some soiling, a few spots, hinges cracked, covers with some soiling and light wear to edges, ties absent. First edition of this important collection of portraits of important figures in medicine, science, and philosophy, but including some mythological figures such as Hygiaea, the goddess of healing, and Apollo, all accompanied by poems written by Sambucus about them. The portraits, attributed to Pieter van der Borcht include such figures as Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, but also more contemporary figures such as Vesalius, Agricola, Mattioli, Paracelsus, and Sambucus himself. Some of the classical portraits were taken from Dioscorides’ Codex vindobonensis which had recently been purchased by an Austrian diplomat and brought to Vienna in 1569. In four cases no suitable source could be found. This accounts for the three empty engraved frames and the pasted portrait. Not in Adams. See illustration.
Icones veterum aliquot, ac recentium medicorum, philosophorum…. Antwerp: Christopher Plantin, 1574. *2, B-M6, N1. Engraved title-page, 67 engraved plates, 3 of which without portraits, 1 with portrait pasted in. Folio (319 x 222 mm). Contemporary limp vellum. Lacks final blank?, front endpapers with early notation, brief notation to title-page, some soiling, a few spots, hinges cracked, covers with some soiling and light wear to edges, ties absent. First edition of this important collection of portraits of important figures in medicine, science, and philosophy, but including some mythological figures such as Hygiaea, the goddess of healing, and Apollo, all accompanied by poems written by Sambucus about them. The portraits, attributed to Pieter van der Borcht include such figures as Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen, but also more contemporary figures such as Vesalius, Agricola, Mattioli, Paracelsus, and Sambucus himself. Some of the classical portraits were taken from Dioscorides’ Codex vindobonensis which had recently been purchased by an Austrian diplomat and brought to Vienna in 1569. In four cases no suitable source could be found. This accounts for the three empty engraved frames and the pasted portrait. Not in Adams. See illustration.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
