[HERTEL, Jacob]

£7,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare second edition of this collection of quotations of about 50 ancient Greek authors, such as Menander, Philemon, Apollodorus, Eupolides, Cratinus and many others, with facing Latin text, edited by Hertel. The date appears in the preface. Jacob Hertel (1536-1564) was a deacon and teacher in Basel and died at 28 of plague. He wrote Lutheran works. His collection of sentences was banned in 1783. This copy probably belonged to the erudite writer Tommaso Garzoni (1549-1589). No record of his handwriting has survived neither autographs or manuscripts. Garzoni studied law at Ferrara and Siena, and then entered the monastery of Santa Maria del Porto in Ravenna (1566). He travelled across Italy and was in contact with many intellectuals of the time, such as Alvise Groto and Torquato Tasso. His works reflected his encyclopaedic culture dealing sometimes with unorthodox topics. Among them Il teatro de vari e diversi cervelli mondani (1583) and especially La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo (1585), both published in Venice. They are compilations of anecdotes and fragments from classical and modern authors. Garzoni was inspired by ancient and contemporary collections of sentences and probably read Hertel s Sentences for the purpose of his writing. He read many other condemned works, particularly by Cornelius Agrippa of Nettesheim. The interest in the study of proverbs can be traced back to the philosophical writings of Aristotle. It inspired the work of many Renaissa

• Binding: Hardcover

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