Collegium Conimbricense, Societatis Iesu - Commentarii De Coelo, Meteororum et Parva Naturalia Aristotelis - 1616

Important sixteenth/seventeenth-century edition of the famous Commentarii of the Collegium of the Jesuits of Coimbra to the natural works of Aristotle.
The volume comprises three wide sections:
- Commentarii super quatuor libros De Coelo
- Commentarii in libros Meteororum
- Commentarii in libros Aristotelis qui Parva Naturalia appellantur
Venice, Andrea Baba, 1616.

Elegant overall title page printed in red and black, with a large woodcut mark of the Society of Jesus. Additional autonomous title pages open the sections of Meteororum and Parva Naturalia.
Text richly illustrated with numerous woodcut initials, typographic ornaments and diagrams, with discussions devoted, among other things, to Aristotelian cosmology, celestial motions, the Milky Way, the rainbow, the winds, precipitation, earthquakes, metals, memory, sleep, youth and old age, life and death.
An interesting testimony to the diffusion of Aristotelian natural philosophy in European Jesuit teaching in the early 17th century.

Collation of the copy
The copy has been checked fascicle by fascicle.
De Coelo:
a², b⁴, c⁴, d², A⁴–X⁴, Y².
Pagination up to p. 342.
Meteororum:
A⁴–F⁴, G³.
108 pages.
Parva Naturalia:
A⁴–D⁴, E³.
76 pages.
The three sections are present and the sequence of the signatures found is continuous according to the structure of the copy. Preliminary leaves and uncrowned indices are also present.
Total numbered pages: 526, in addition to preliminary and final leaves not numbered.

Conditions
Ancient full parchment binding, likely contemporary, with an old handwritten title on the spine. Parchment showing signs of age, waviness, abrasions, small losses and old repairs on the spine; original ties missing.
On the front cover there is an old handwritten possession inscription, probably of conventual/ecclesiastical origin, now only partially legible.
Interior overall well preserved, on strong paper with wide margins. Sporadic browning, stains and creases, as well as a few small worm holes and short worm galleries, mainly near the inner margin; in some places they reach slightly into the typographic area without compromising legibility of the text.

The photographs constitute an integral part of the description and accurately document the state of conservation.

Bibliographic note
The Cursus Conimbricensis represents one of the most important corpora of Aristotelian commentaries produced by the Society of Jesus between the 16th and 17th centuries and enjoyed wide diffusion in European universities and colleges.