AGRICOLA, Georg. Libri Quinque. De Mensuris & ponderibus: In quibus plearque à Budaeo & Portio parum animadversa diligenter excutiuntur.
Froben’s woodcut device on first title (repeated on verso of final leaf of first part & on title of second part) & historiated initials. Much printing in Greek. 292, [4] pp.; 4 leaves. Two parts in one vol. 4to, cont. blindstamped panelled pigskin over wooden boards (spine a little rubbed), upper cover stamped “1537,” two catches & two clasps. Basel: Froben, 1533. [bound with]:[FICHARD, Johannes]. Virorum qui superiori nostroque Seculo Eruditione et doctrina illustres atque memorabiles fuerunt, Vitae. Iam prium in hoc Volumen collectae. 4 p.l., 119, [1] pp. 4to. Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, [1536]. I. First edition and a very fine copy in a handsome contemporary binding, of one of Agricola’s most important books which became a standard work on ancient weights and measures. It is “a valuable book of reference on the history of ancient measures...The book is also valuable to the student of Roman and Greek numerals, and of the various symbols of measures. Such works explain the origin of certain systems of measures employed before the metric system was developed, and of such symbols as are still used by apothecaries.”–Smith, Rara Arithmetica, pp. 171-73–(who, like several other bibliographers, describe in error the Paris edition of the same year as the first edition). Besides these subjects, Agricola discusses the value of metals of all kinds and of money both in ancient and modern times. II. First edition. Fichard (1512-81), a native of Frankfurt am Main, took his degree at Heidelberg and later translated some short works of Galen for inclusion in Cratander’s Latin edition of 1531. After receiving his law doctorate at Freiburg, Fichard travelled to Padua and Naples. When he returned to Germany, he settled in Frankfurt where he became a well-known and highly successful lawyer and diplomat. This is a collection of biographies of important people including Petrarch, Giovanni Antonio Campani, Pope Pius II (Piccolomini), Filippo Beroaldo, Mirandola, and Thomas More. Fine and fresh copies. It is interesting to note that President Hoover only owned an incomplete copy of the Agricola, lacking the second part. Ex Bibliotheca Mechanica. ❧ I. Darmstaedter, G. Agricola, pp. 71-74–“especially important for the historian of medicine.” Hoover 13–(incomplete copy). II. Bietenholz, ed., Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. II, pp. 26-27.
$US12500
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