CHASSENEUX (Barthélemy de).

Catalogus gloriæ mundi. Frankfurt am Main, Georg Rab for Sigmund Feyerabend, 1579. In-folio, stiff vellum, triple cold fillet, brown stained spine decorated with gilt irons, fawn title page, edges waxed (Binding of the time). Sought-after edition for the illustration by Jost Amman, which is in the first edition. It is composed of 12 etchings outside the text, double-page or folded, by the Swiss engraver established in Nuremberg, 4 of which bear his monogram. The text is also adorned with woodcuts, including a superb typographical mark on the title, the coats of arms of the dedicatees on the second leaf and about fifty coats of arms in the first part. The Catalogus gloriæ mundi, the original edition of which was published in Lyon in 1529, is a twelve-book summary of the knowledge of the author, the jurist Barthélémy de Chasseneux (1480-1541), on the honours, dignities, and precedence of princes, clergy, and military orders, as well as the status of the sciences, arts, and crafts. It was reprinted many times until the middle of the 17th century. On the reverse of f. 273, as in previous editions, a paragraph is devoted to the invention of printing by Gutenberg, in Mainz, and then to its introduction in Rome by the German Conradus (Sweynheim), followed by the Frenchman Nicolas Jenson. The ornamentation of the spine, stained brown to imitate a calf-bound book, was completed in the 17th century. Some old marginal annotations in French. From the library of André Pasquet, with ex-libris. Marks of wear to binding, slight loss to one board and to the title-piece, upper hinge skilfully reinforced; paper slightly foxed, as always. Becker, n°99: 1-12 - Adams, C-1415.