Plinius - Historia Naturale - 1548

Pliny the Elder – Historia Naturale – Venice, 1548 – Antonio Brucioli – 1108 pages

An impressive and complete 16th-century Venetian printing of Pliny the Elder's celebrated Natural History, translated into Italian by the Renaissance humanist Antonio Brucioli.

Author: Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder)
Title: Historia Naturale
Translator: Antonio Brucioli
Place of publication: Venice, Italy
Printer: Alessandro Brucioli and brothers
Year: 1548
Language: Italian
Dimensions: 21.5 × 16 cm
Binding: Old binding with parchment spine and red-covered boards

Description

An important Venetian Renaissance edition of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, one of the most influential encyclopaedic works of classical antiquity.

Originally composed in the first century AD, this monumental work encompasses an extraordinary range of subjects, including astronomy, geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, medicine, agriculture, mineralogy, precious stones, metals and the natural world.

For more than fifteen centuries, Pliny's encyclopedia remained an essential source of scientific and historical knowledge, profoundly influencing medieval and Renaissance scholarship.

This edition contains the Italian translation by Antonio Brucioli (c. 1498–1566), an important Florentine humanist, scholar and translator.

Its publication in the vernacular made the classical text accessible to a wider Renaissance readership beyond those educated in Latin.

Printing and typography

Printed in Venice in 1548, during the flourishing period of Italian Renaissance book production.

The substantial text is set in elegant Renaissance italic type and embellished with numerous decorative woodcut initials, several incorporating figurative designs.

The printing displays the characteristic craftsmanship of the Venetian presses of the mid-sixteenth century.

The original colophon is preserved at the end of the volume, confirming the place of printing, printer and date: Venice, 1548 (MDXLVIII).

Collation and completeness

Collation: [40], 1068 pp., plus one supplied facsimile title leaf.

- 40 unnumbered preliminary pages containing the preface and index.
- 1068 numbered pages of the main text, ending with page MLXVIII.
- Total original textual content: 1108 pages.
- One additional facsimile title leaf, replacing the missing original title page.
- Original final colophon present.

The text is complete, including the preliminary matter, index and the entire main text.

The only supplied leaf is the title page, which is not original.

Binding

Attractive old binding with a parchment spine, raised bands and red-covered boards.

The spine carries a manuscript title identifying the work as Plinio, together with the date 1548.

The binding displays signs of age and use, consistent with the antiquity of the volume, while retaining considerable historical character.

Condition

A substantially complete and attractive copy, with three defects that should be noted:

1. Supplied title page

The original title page is missing and has been replaced by a facsimile reproduction.

2. Restored double leaf

One double leaf has undergone restoration, with visible paper reinforcement and repairs.

3. Worm damage

Approximately 30 pages show wormholes or worm tracks. In some places the damage extends into the printed text, with minor loss of individual letters.

Apart from these defects, the text is complete.

The paper generally remains in attractive condition for a book printed nearly five centuries ago, with occasional age-related staining, handling marks and wear.

Please examine the photographs carefully, particularly those illustrating the restored leaf and worm damage.

Historical significance

Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia represents one of the greatest surviving attempts from classical antiquity to assemble and systematically describe the knowledge of the natural world.

Its influence extended into medicine, natural philosophy, geography, art history and the development of scientific literature.

The Italian translation by Antonio Brucioli belongs to the intellectual world of the Renaissance, when classical knowledge was increasingly made available through vernacular editions.

This substantial Venetian printing of 1548 is therefore of interest not only to collectors of early printed books, but also to those interested in the history of science, Renaissance humanism and the transmission of classical knowledge.

An impressive mid-sixteenth-century Venetian edition, preserving the complete text of Pliny's Natural History in Italian, with its original colophon, decorative woodcut initials and attractive historical binding.