$1,560
Porta, Giovanni Battista della (1535-1615) Magiae Naturalis Libri Viginti . Frankfurt: Wechel, 1591. Octavo, ink inscriptions to title, paper toned, bound in German blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards with intact clasps, originally bound with patches to the covering material, peeling slightly, otherwise an intact binding. Porta was in the first generation of polymath early modern scientists. His work is a collection of notable and largely unexplained qualities of the natural world. Optics, magnetism, medicine, poison, alchemy, earthquakes, fossils, early scientists had many things that needed understanding. Porta, by collecting and presenting the inexplicable, takes the first step in that direction.
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2012-11-18
