PLINIUS SECUNDUS. Plinii Secundi naturae historiarum libri XXXVII.

Folio. 370x245 mm. Later full stiff vellum binding, handwritten title on spine. 268 not numbered leaves. Coll. a-z8, f6, g-z 8, &8, A-I8, K6. Titlepage on leaf a1r. Colophon on leaf K6r “impressi Venetiis p. Bernardinu[s] Benaliu[s], 1497”. Roman and Greek type. Space for initials with guide letters. A lot of ancient handwritten marginalia. ExLibris “Almagià” on insidecover. Good condition, specimen with wide margins. 

Rare and important incunabulum, on the text established by Hermolao Barbaro. This edition is edited by Ioannes Baptista Palamarius whose name appears on c. a1v. Pliny's encyclopaedic work became the scientific reference book for the entire early modern period and went through countless editions and translations. The first scientific text ever printed, in 1469, Historia naturalis is also the most important ancient source on the history of art, describing not only the history of ancient painting but also materials and techniques; it contains more than 2,000 references and experiments reduced into 3 books from more than 1,000 ancient sources based on more than 450 authors and covers subjects as diverse as cosmography, astronomy, meteorology, geography, ethnography, anthropology, zoology, botany, medicine, pharmacy, metallurgy, mining and the fine arts. 

As BMC notes, this edition, although the Colophon bears the date 1497, was not printed before 1498: the dedication to the Doge, in fact, is dated ‘Idi di febbraio del dodicesimo anno del Principato di Agostino Barbarigo’. Barbarigo was in office from 30 August 1486 to 20 September 1501: the twelfth year of his Doge's rule is from 30 August 1497 - 29 August 1498.

Specimen of prestigious provenance, belonging to the Italian geographer and map historian Roberto Almagià, 1884-1962, professor at the universities of Padua and Rome.