The first printed map of the world
One of the earliest signed binding

ISIDORE DE SEVILLE. Etymologiae. Sans lieu ni date [Strasburg, Johann Mentelin, c. 1473]. Chancery folio, 142 leaves (first blank), large two-colour initials at the begining of the separate books; numerous smaller initials in red and blue alternately, contemporary Flemish blindstamped calf over wooden boards with small square ornaments of animals within a border of leaves and lines.

Second edition.

This work, the most important of Isidore, is the standard authority upon the state of learning at the end of the 6th and begining of the 7th century. It is divided into 20 books as follows: I. Grammar (with introduction on the seven liberal arts); II. Rhetoric and Dialectic; III. The four mathematical sciences (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy); IV. Medicine; V. Law and Chronology; VI. Theology; VII. God, the Angels; VIII. Church and different sects; X. Languages, races, empires; XI. Man and Monsters; XII. Animals, reptiles, birds, fishes and insects; XIII and XIV Geography; XV. Buildings and fields; XVI. Stones, metals and mineralogy; XVII. Agriculture; XVIII. War and amusements; XIX. Ships and navy; XX. Provisions and ustensils for the household and fields.

This book contains the earliest printed map of the world. Chapter 5 of book XIV (Geography) contains the following remarkable passage:"Besides the three parts of the circle, there is a fourth part across the ocean on the south, which is unknown to us on account of the heat of the sun, in whose boundaries, according to story, the natipodes are said to dwell". It is also interesting to note that from the journals, letters and writings of Columbus, it appears that he was familiar with Isidore's Encyclopedia. This part contains the first printed map, of the diagrammatic T-O form showing the three continents separated by a T-shaped Mediterranean sea, the whole surrounded by the world's ocean.

This extremely rare work is also illustrated with 8 woodcut diagrams.

Isidore, bishop of Seville, became, thanks to his remarkable "Etymologies, or the Origins of Words", the chief authority of the Middle Ages, and the presence of his Encyclopedia in every monastic, cathedral and college library was a main factor in perpetuating the state of knowledge and the modes of thought of the late Roman world. Johannes Balbus, Bartholomeus Anglicus and other writers were deeply indebted to Isidore. In Spain, his homeland, his reputation outlasted the Middle Ages far into the seventeenth century; Calderon was still grounded in the Etymologia. To our age, Isidore has remained a primary source of the ancient world-picture as conceived in the Middle Ages.

A very nice copy of this extremely rare and important incunable printed by the famous Strasburg prototypographer, Joahnn Mentelin.

Bound with:

ALANUS DE INSULIS. Distinctiones dictionum theologicalium.[Strasburg, C.W., circa 1474]. Chancery folio; 95 leaves.

First edition of this very rare and early incunable.
Alain de Lille or Alanus ab Insulis (c.1128 - 1202), French theologian and poet, was born, probably in Lille, some years before 1128. Little is known of his life. He seems to have taught in the schools of Paris, and he attended the third Lateran Council in 1179. He afterwards inhabited Montpellier (he is sometimes called Alanus de Montepessulano), lived for a time outside the walls of any cloister, and finally retired to Citeaux, where he died in 1202.
Alain attained extraordinary celebrity in his day as a teacher and a learned man, his widespread reputation during his lifetime and his knowledge caused him to be called Doctor universalis. Among his very numerous works two poems entitle him to a distinguished place in the Latin literature of the Middle Ages; one of these, the De planctu naturae, is an ingenious satire on the vices of humanity. He created the allegory of grammatical "conjugation" which was to have its successors throughout the Middle Ages. The Anticlaudianus, a treatise on morals as allegory, the form of which recalls the pamphlet of Claudian against Rufinus, is agreeably versified and relatively pure in its latinity.As a theologian Alain de Lille shared in the mystic reaction of the second half of the 12th century against the scholastic philosophy. Alain's theology is characterized by that peculiar variety of rationalism tinged with mysticism which is found in the writings of John Scotus Erigena, and which afterwards reappeared in the works of Raymond Lully. His philosophy is a syncretism, or eclecticism, in which the principal elements are Platonism, Aristoteleanism, and Pythagoreanism. He esteemed Plato as the philosopher; Aristotle he regarded merely as a subtle logician. Alain is also to be enumerated among the medieval writers who influenced Dante.
A very interesting sammelband of two highly important incunable bound in a magnificent contemporary signed binding with this manuscript note on the fly leaf: "Hoc volumen legavit conventi beatae mariae virginis in bethleem prope lovanium venerabilis dominus magister iohannes de grimberghem artium magister et sacre pagine professor une et orent fratres devote pro eo ut dignum et iustum est."