Romanorum antiquitatum libri decem ex variis scriptoribus simma fide singularique diligentia collecti.

£2,250 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The first edition of this compendious, well-illustrated work by Luther pastor and theologian Johannes Roszfelt. The double-page woodcuts are a plan of sites in ancient Rome and of a Roman military camp. The text woodcuts depict coins, medallions, ancient sites, temples, etcetera. The book achieved significant circulation amongst the cognoscenti, stimulating the desire for firsthand touring among the progenitors of the Grand Tour. Almost like an armchair guidebook to ancient Rome, Rosinus presents here ‘a systematic vision of the Roman world…the first modern handbuch of antiquities’. Extremely popular, and a work that would run to many editions, this work was produced during the late sixteenth-century ‘material turn’, a turn, in humanist circles, towards the material reality of ancient history. Provenance: [Pierre?] Massoy, 1674 at head of title and below colophon. “He: Dacre” on the dedication page, possibly Henry Lennard, 12th Baron Dacre (1570-1616). Small hole/paper flaw in left margin of title, pale waterstain and small wormtrack in margin of last few leaves. VD16 R3156.

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