Description

Saxo Grammaticus.

Danorum Historiae Libri XVI, Trecentis ab hinc annis conscripti, tanta dictionis elegantia, rerumque gestarum uarietate, ut cum omni uetustate contendere optimo iure uideri possint. Acceßit rerum memorabilium Index locupletißimus. In Daniam nauigare malo, quae nobis dedit Saxonem Grammaticu(m), qui suae gentis historiam splendide magnificeque contexuit. Probo uiuidum & ardens ingenium, orationem nusquam remissam aut dormitantem, tum miram uerborum copiam, sententias crebras, & figurarum admirabilem uarietatem, ut satis admirari non queam, unde illas aetate homini Dano tanta uis eloquendi. Basel, Johann Bebel, 1534. fol. 14 (instead of 16) leaves, 189 foliated leaves, 1 leaf. With 2 printer's marks (on the title and the last leaf), 1 metalcut border by Jacob Faber after Hans Holbein (at the beginning of the text) and 16 beautiful woodcut initials. Flexible parchment binding of the period with full binding and overlapping edges. (Spine torn, stained, clasps missing). VD 16 S-2049, Adams S-531, cat. Holbein, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1960, no. 387. Second edition of Saxo's (c. 1150 - c. 1220) main work, the history of the Danes from the time of Dan I to his own; Saxo wrote the work at the instigation of Archbishop Absalon of Lund and began it around 1185. Erasmus, who was involved in this edition, praises Saxo's elegance in Latin expression. Virgil's "Aeneid" was one of Saxo's models. The first edition was published in Paris in 1514. Saxo may have drawn Shakespeare's attention to the story of Prince Hamlet, which he was the first to reproduce according to an oral tradition (fol. 25verso - 28recto). However, there is also the oldest version of the apple shooting story, with the hero Toko at its center; Schiller used this for his William Tell. Saxo also gives a very graphic account of the fall of the pagan temple on Arkona, of glaciers in Iceland and is the first to write about the movement of glaciers. The two leaves before the index with the preface by Johannes Opoprinus to the Bishop of Basel, Philipp von Gundelsheim, are missing. Small cut-out from the title page (without loss of text) and some ink damage above the printer's mark. The top fifth of fol. 117 has been torn away. Traces of moisture in the wide margins throughout.

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Saxo Grammaticus.

Estimate 460 - 700 EUR
Starting price 460 EUR

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For sale on Wednesday 03 Jul : 10:00 (CEST)
pforzheim, Germany
Kiefer
+49723192320
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