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NEAPOLIS, Carolus

Anaptyxis ad fastos P. Ovidii Nasonis

Antverpiae
ex off. Plantiniana, Balthasar Moretus
1639

€200 - €300

In-folio, [32], 304, [30], [2 blank] pp. Beautiful allegorical engraved title page (I. Neeffs after Erasmus Quellinus). With different calendars in the introduction, one of which illustrated with woodcut signs of the zodiac. Large printer's device at the end. Some lvs. age-toned. Old calf binding, spine gilt, hinges weak, corners worn. In all a very good copy

Provenance:
prize book, prize handwritten on fly leaf.
Ref. Graesse V, p. 78. Rare first edition of this extensive commentary on Ovid's Fasti. Ovid's Fasti, in English also known as The Book of Days or On the Roman Calendar, is a Latin didactic poem written in elegiac couplets, consisting of six books covering the months of the Roman and Julian calendar. It is structured as a series of eyewitness reports and interviews with Roman deities, who explain the origins of the Roman holidays and associated customs. It became an important source for the study of the religion in ancient Rome and it inspired many artists in the 15th through 18th centuries to the creation of their mythological paintings

Humanism