Lancelloti Secondo. - L’Hoggidì - 1662

Secondo Lancellotti. L’Hoggidì, or The World No Worse, Nor More Calamitous than the Past. Venice, Guerigli, 1662. Seventeenth-century edition of the famous historical work by the Olivetine abbot on the common theme of lament for a past that was idealized and better. The work demonstrates through historical, statistical, and moral examples that the present is by no means worse, nor more corrupt or afflicted by misfortunes, than antiquity. Of great interest are the chapters on the vanity of women, on avarice, on justice, on infidelity, on earthquakes and on prodigies, portents, monsters, and miracles. Calf binding of the period. Calligraphic title on the spine. Printer’s mark engraved on the frontispiece. Portrait of the author in the preliminary pages. Dimensions 16 x 11 cm, pages 30 unnumbered, 598. Excellent condition.