ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS. Praeclarissimum opus diui Isidori Hyspalensis.

Extremely rare post-incunabulum, illustrated. Work printed in Paris in 1509 byJean Barbier for Jean Petit. Illustrations in the text include: Woodcutillustrations: tree of consanguinity (full page, leaf L), schematic map of theworld (leaf LXXI), mathematical symbols, spelling signs, phases of the moon. The first medieval compendium, an encyclopediaof secular and sacred knowledge, completed in 633 in Visigothic Spain, Isidoreof Seville's Etymologies contain ancient content in an already medieval form:human knowledge is presented in terms of definitions and taxonomy, according toa classification that classically includes the seven liberal arts, materialtechniques, law, medicine, sacred knowledge, and the natural sciences. Theintellectual tool used to define reality falls into four new categories:analogies, differences, glosses, and, above all, etymologies. Isidore ofSeville's central thesis is that “the nature of a thing is better understoodonce the nature of its name is known,” thus through an approach that moves fromwords to things, advocating a return to the sources of things through those ofwords, ultimately to the purity of origins.

Folio. 280x210 mm. Limp vellum binding, withflap. 103 leaves, i.e. 101, [3, last blank]. Leaves 21 and 61 not numbered.Colophon at the end, leaf r5 verso. Printer's device on the title page, text intwo columns, Gothic, Greek and Roman type. Illuminated initials on a criblébackground, woodcut illustrations of various sizes in the text. A finecopy with wide margins.