96 - OBSEQUENS, Julius.

OBSEQUENS, Julius. Containing excerpts from the *Book of Prodigies* with annotations by Johannes Scheffer and supplements by Conrad Lycosthenes, edited by Franciscus Oudendorp, Lugdunum Batavorum Lugduni Batavorum (Leiden), Apud Samuelem Luchtmans, 1720 In-8, 215 pp. and (4)ff. index and errata, red and black title, typographic mark on the title page. Stiff, gilt ivory-colored vellum of the period; smooth spine decorated with gilt scrolls and gilt dies; large gilt die bearing the coat of arms on the covers; gilt scroll framing the coat of arms; edges speckled with blue (traces of green silk laces, slight soiling on the vellum). The Book of Prodigies is a sort of compilation of extraordinary phenomena (monsters, celestial apparitions, and prodigious events) Julius Obsequens, sometimes rendered as Jules Obséquent, was a pagan Roman writer Dutch prize binding (or “prijsband”) stamped with the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam in a gilt stamp on the covers In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the major cities of the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Leiden, Rotterdam, The Hague, Haarlem) had highly prestigious Latin schools. At the end of each school year, the municipality of Amsterdam presented exceptional textbooks to the top students to reward them for their achievements in Latin or Greek A sheet of laid paper added opposite the title page: Ex libris featuring the coat of arms, printed on laid paper (19th–20th centuries), with a varnish finish (on the inside cover). Caillet, 3299, “Valued edition.”