CONTI (Natale) Mythologiæ, sive explicationis... Lot 38

CONTI (Natale) Mythologiæ, sive explicationis fabularum, Libri decem Geneva: Samuel Chouet, 1653. - Fort in-8, red morocco, triple gilt fillet in frame, gilt fleuron at corners and gilt iron in center on covers, ornate ribbed spine, gilt edges (late 17th century binding). New Latin edition of the most famous work by the Italian humanist and poet Natale Conti (1520-1582), a veritable mythological sum that was a reference for European scholars, thinkers, pedagogues and artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. Like most early editions, this one also contains the poem De Venatione, dedicated to hunting, and the Mythologia musarum by French naturalist Geoffroi Linocier. An expensive copy, bound in morocco at the end of the 17th century, decorated on the boards with the iron of the Collège des Chanoines réguliers de Sainte-Geneviève (Nanterre), founded in 1637 and whose opening was linked to the reform of the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève. The iron depicts a hand holding a flaming heart, pierced by an arrow and accompanied by a radiant cloud. On the second white endpaper is the prize, dated 1682 and signed "Aegisdius Rousselet Eloquenta professor". To the left of the signature is part of the college's red wax seal. (Covers damaged and missing, corners dulled. Leaves browned. Handwritten Latin bookplate on title.)