4to (219 x 173 mm). 2 parts in one, [8], 349, [23]; 313, [17] pp. Edited by Heinrich Salmuth. Engraved title to part I [after Sebastian Furck], double column. Slight browning intrinsic to paper; but overall fresh condition. Contemporary ivory vellum over pasteboard, title gold lettered on spine, edges red-sprinkled.
A handsome copy of Panciroli’s encyclopaedic history of ancient and modern arts and technology. Provenance: Duke August of Brunswick-Lüneburg, bookplate and printed shelf number 57; Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, library and withdrawal stamps on verso of title.
First published at Amberg in 1599-1602, Salmuth’s Latin edition was a “surreptitious” translation, with extensive commentary, of the author's Raccolta di alcune cose più segnalate… which circulated at the time in manuscript. No fewer than four separate issues are recorded by VD-17 under this imprint and date; all reprint Schoenwetter’s 1631 edition, but only one (39:160841F) bears the original engraved title by Sebastian Furck used in previous editions; the other three issues, including this one, have exact copies of the engraving.
Part I treats the arts and techniques of antiquity, including papyrus, roads, statues, libraries, labyrinths, the pyramids, tombs, obelisks, dress and accessories such as the fibula, wine, slavery, Roman writing and writing surfaces, equitation, hunting and food production, and the performing arts, including music, musica muta (pantomime), and stagecraft. Part II, on inventions unknown to the ancients, opens with a long section on the New World, discussing its discovery, the effects of the encounter on the natives (venereal disease tops the list), American crops and products including sassafras, plantains, and many other fruits and herbs, with their uses by the Native Americans. Other sections are devoted to the history of printing in China and Europe (an addendum by Salmuth provides “the true history” of Gutenberg’s invention, from the evidence contained in the Helmasperger Notarial Instrument), papermaking, sugar, alchemy, porcelain, time-pieces, bells, ciphers and codes, glasses, silk-weaving, tournaments and jousts, and watermills. "Pancirollo’s work is interesting, not only as giving some notion of the state of knowledge as to the history of invention in his time, but as displaying the attitude of scholars towards the practical arts of the ancients" (Ferguson).
VD 17 12:650784G; Ferguson, Books of Secrets, II, pp. 33 & 58; Sabin 58412. Other editions: Brunet, IV, 339; Cicognara 1745; Bigmore & Wyman II:112-13 (discussing the printing scene in lower border of engraved title).
Donated by Musinsky Rare Books, New York, NY.