Isidore's Etymologiae

Isidore's Etymologiae
Conrad Winters, not after 1476
ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS (c.560-636). Etymologiae. [Cologne: Conrad Winters de Homborch, not after 1476.]

Third edition of Isidore’s great encyclopedia, with illuminated initials and hand-colored woodcuts. Isidore was “the chief authority of the Middle Ages, and the presence of his book in every monastic, cathedral, and college library was a main factor in perpetuating the state of knowledge and the modes of thought of the late-Roman world” (PMM). The Etymologiae provided to medieval and Renaissance scholars an invaluable single source of late classical scientific knowledge and lexicography (and earned Isidore the honor of being patron saint of the internet). It is also noted for containing the first printed reference to arithmetic, amid its treatment of almost every other subject under the sun. The 1472 Zainer first edition contains the first map in a printed book; the map in the present edition is a new woodblock copying the second, more elaborate issue. It is a T-O style map, which originated in the 5th century BCE and appears—Christianized—in manuscripts of the Etymologiae from the 8th century. Copies of any of the early editions are rare; only one other copy of this edition is recorded at auction. HC 9271*; BSB-Ink I-629; Campbell(Maps) 79; Klebs 536.3; Goff I-183; ISTC ii00183000. See also PMM 9 and Stillwell, Science, II.180, IV.665, and VI.850 for a discussion of the first edition.

Royal folio (384 x 285mm). 125 leaves (of 126, without initial blank). Partial illuminated border on first leaf, 27 red, green, and blue illuminated acanthus initials, red and blue Lombard initials, handcolored woodcut illustrations including TO map (dampstaining, repaired closed tear, corner of first leaf replaced touching decoration). Contemporary blindstamped calf over wooden boards, engraved clasps, bosses, old inscription of letters of the alphabet and diphthongs around blindstamped border (front flyleaf renewed, possibly recased). Provenance: marginalia – erased ex-libris on first leaf – “Frater Mathias conversus” (inscription dated 1562-3 on front pastedown).