De situ orbis habitabilis.

£8,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books · No longer available

influential classical geography Second separate edition of Dionysius' didactic compendium of geographical descriptions of the known world, translated from the original Greek in prose by the Veronese humanist Antonio Beccaria. Dionysius' work first appeared in print in a free verse translation in Priscian's Opera in 1470 before the first Beccaria edition of 1477. Dionysius was a scholar-poet who flourished in Alexandria during the reign of Hadrian in the second century AD. In antiquity, his description of the world as it was then known was widely read and extremely influential, particularly among later poets. Translated into Latin, the subject of commentaries, and popular in Byzantium, it offers insights into multiple traditions of ancient geography, both literary and more scientific, and displays interesting affiliations to the earlier school of Alexandrian poets. Dionysius of Alexandria, called Periegetes (the guide), was a contemporary of the great Hellenistic geographers Marinus of Tyre and Claudius Ptolemy. Second edition; 4to, (20.1 x 15.7 cm); four-line incipit printed in red, white-on-black woodcut initials, text printed on 26 lines, table in two columns, printed marginalia, some leaves browned, occasional light dampstaining, scattered light foxing, Latin inscription to e6v; later full vellum over boards, some light rubbing and soiling to boards, otherwise a very good copy; collation: a-c8 d-e6 (a1r translator's preface addressed to Hieronymus de Leonardis, a3r text, e

• Binding: Hardcover

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