17th Century Illustrated Vellum Book, Ulisse Aldrovandi's De Quadrupedibus Solidipedibus

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Title: De Quadrupedibus Solidipedibus, Volumen Integrum Ioannes Cornelius Uterverius
Author: Aldrovandi, Ulisse.
Publication: Bononiae, apud Victorium Benatium.
Place: Bologna, Italy.
… Read more Title: De Quadrupedibus Solidipedibus, Volumen Integrum Ioannes Cornelius Uterverius
Author: Aldrovandi, Ulisse.
Publication: Bononiae, apud Victorium Benatium.
Place: Bologna, Italy.
Editon, date: First edition, 1616.

Description: First Edition. Latin text. Folio (14.25 H x 9.75 D x 2 W inches/362 H x 248 D x 51 W millimeters). pp. (10), 495, (1), Index and Registrum (34), woodcut title head and foot vignettes, illustrated chapter initials, numerous woodcut illustrations throughout (Illustrated title page, 4 full page, 9 half page). Original vellum, spine with 5 banded spine and gilt stamped/lettered title at head. This is the first edition of Aldrovandi's illustrated encyclopedia of quadrupeds, published posthumously in 1616. Real animals depicted include a zebra, a rhinoceros and an elephant but as a remnant of mediaeval times also depicted are a two legged centaur and horse-like creatures with a human head or with human hands. In fact most of the work deals with the horse, its history, its mythology and its use in war, transport , hunting and even as food. Krivatsky 184 , Graesse I 65.§. This work is an exceptional volume of Aldrovandi's 'Opera' that comprises a total of 13 books.

About the author: Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the Comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history studies. His vast collections in botany and zoology he willed to the Senate of Bologna; until 1742 the collections were conserved in the Palazzo Pubblico, then in the Palazzo Poggi, but were distributed among various libraries and institutions in the course of the nineteenth century. In 1907 a representative part were reunited at Palazzo Poggi, Bologna, where the 400th anniversary of his death was memorialized in a celebrate exhibition in 2005. Of the several hundred books and essays he wrote, only four were published during his lifetime.

See my listings for other Ulisse Aldrovandi works; titled Ornithologiæ. Hoc est, De Avibus Historiæ Libri XII (Second Edition, 1610) & Serpentum et draconum historiæ libri duo (First edition, 1640). See less