EUSEBIUS CAESARIENSIS; RUFINUS AQUILEIENSIS ( translator ). Historia ecclesiastica.

£8,000 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

Church History as Mirror for Princes EUSEBIUS CAESARIENSIS; RUFINUS AQUILEIENSIS ( translator ). Historia ecclesiastica. Mantua: Johannes Schallus . [Not before 15 July 1479.] Folio. Eighteenth-century vellum over boards, gilt red morocco lettering-piece to spine; ff. [171], [1 (blank)]; roman letter, 2- to 6-line capital spaces with guide letters, initials and paraphs supplied in red and blue, running-titles in brown ink; lettering-piece chipped, slight wear to corners, a few small marks; washed (initials in blue faded to light grey, running-titles and annotation faded), occasional light marginal thumb-marks, slight soiling to blank first and final pages and to corners of first few leaves, old repair to f. 6~sup~v~sup~, a few pinhole wormholes to contents and dedication; overall a very good, wide-margined copy; near-contemporary annotation to f. 22~sup~r~sup~, eighteenth-century engraved armorial bookplate of Amadeo Svajer and eighteenth-century ink shelfmarks to front pastedown, later manuscript quiring in pencil. Fourth edition of Eusebius’ ( c . 260–339) important history of the church, the last book printed by the German physician and printer Johannes Schallus at Mantua, our copy from the library of the influential eighteenth-century Venetian merchant and bibliophile Amadeo Svajer, who funded the 1757–8 production of Zatta’s important edition of Dante’s Commedia, the first since 1544 to feature new illustrations. The dedication by Schallus – who worked primarily as a phy

• Binding: Hardcover

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