Solinus De mirabilibus mundi or Polyhistor, with Apian's World Map

The New World Appears | THE PADUA–­­HUTH–MENDEL–LILLY EXAMPLE SOLINUS, Gaius Julius; ed. Joannes Camers (Giovanni Ricuzzi). Ioannis Camertis minoritani, artium, et sacrae theologiae doctoris, in. C. Iulii Solini ΠΟΛΥΊΣΤΩΡΑ [polyhistōra] enarrationes. Additus eiusdem Camertis Index, tum literarum ordine, tum rerum notabiliũ copia, percõmodus Studiosis. Vienna: Johann Singriener for Lucas Alantsee, 1520. First edition. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $95,000. Cost: Sotheby’s 1981 - $6,250. Folio in 6s (12” x 8 1/8”, 305mm x 207mm): binder’s blank, π8 a4 b-z6 A-E6 F4 aa-bb6 cc4(–cc4), binder’s blank [$4 signed]. 193 leaves, pp. [16] (title, 2pp. dedication to Emperor Maximilian, 6pp. dedication to Werbőczy István, 3pp. laudatory poems, to the readers, 2pp. life of Solinus, prefatory epistle of Solinus), 1-336, [34] (2pp. errata, colophon, blank, 28pp. index, publisher and typesetter to the readers, publisher’s device). With a folding woodcut world map by Petrus Apianus. Bound by Bedford (signed at the upper edge of the verso of the first free end-paper) in mirror calf. On the boards, a triple gilt fillet border. On the spine, six raised bands with a dashed gilt roll. Panels gilt. Author and title gilt to brown morocco in the second panel, imprint gilt to brown morocco in the third. Gilt strokes to the head- and tail-pieces. Double gilt fillets to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Marbled end-papers. All edges of the text-block gilt. Presented in a deep brown pull-off case made by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. Evidently cleaned and pressed. Lacking final blank (cc4). Some bumping to the fore-corners, with the front hinge starting. A little foxing to the map. Superb margins all-round. With the bookplates of Huth and of Mendel on the front paste-down. Inkstamp of the “pubblica libreria di pad.” to the title-page. Deaccession inkstamp of the Lilly Library at Indiana University, dated in pencil “2 Nov 1962” to the blank following the text’s colophon (F4v). Gaius Julius Solinus wrote his treatise De mirabilibus mundi (On the wonders of the world) — also called the Polyhistor (Πολυΐστωρ; “very learned”), as here — in the first half of the third century of the current era. Although it draws on the work of Pliny and Pomponius Mela, it sets its observations on customs and peoples in a firmer chorographical-cartographical framework. Its editio princeps (1473) was before the discovery of the New World, and so its awareness of the world was surpassed only east- and southward. Over time, the Polyhistor along with the work of Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy became the framework for modern atlases. The present work is not (only) the Polyhistor but the commentary (enarrationes) of Johannes Camers (various names; he was born in Camerino and died in Vienna; 1468–1546), the Franciscan (Friar Minor, per the title) humanist. Laid out in the traditional manner of a manuscript commentary, the text unfurls from the spine and is ringed on three sides by notes on the text. The text and commentary are followed by Camers’s index of locations, which, as the title boasts, is indeed perco[m]modus Studiosis, very convenient for scholars. The map of Peter Apian (Petrus Apianus) had long been thought the earliest appearance of “America” — i.e., South America — on a map, but it has been antedated by Waldseemüller’s 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia, of which only one copy survives (in the Library of Congress; Waldseemüller also made gores for a globe in the same year, which survive in a few more instances). It is nevertheless a tremendously important account of westward-expanding knowledge of the world. Our copy’s first possessor to leave a mark was the University of Padua (styled the “pubblica libreria” after the biblioteca Marciana (libreria pubblica di San Marco in Venice)), whose library was established in 1629 — the oldest Italian university library. Its point of exit from that esteemed collection is unclear, but its next marked possessor is Henry (or his son Alfred Henry) Huth, a bibliophile father-and-son the likes of which have never again been seen. Sold by Sotheby’s 1911–1920 in nine parts, the library altogether made £350,000 ($900,000 according to the New York Times). The present item is lot 6938 (part 7, 8 July 1918). Quaritch, the nonpareil London bookseller, bought the volume and sold it to Bernardo Mendel (1895–1967). Mendel was a decorated Viennese WWI soldier who, luckily, moved to Colombia in 1928 and remained there until 1952. He began collecting material principally related to the Americas, and eventually ran the Harper bookshop in New York. His collection eventually was given to the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana at Bloomington beginning in 1961, and it is from this collection that the present item was released as a duplicate (their sale, Parke Bernet 8 November 1962, lot 129). Adams S-1391; Church 45; JCB 1:77; Sabin 86390; Shirley 45 (world map).

Estimación:€80,478.09

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