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Epigrammatum Reverendi et Clariss. Viri Philippi Melanthonis Libri Sex, Recogniti et Avcti a Doctore Iohanne Maiore Ioachimo by MELANCHTHON, Philipp
Book Description
Wittenberg: [Excusa typis Iohannis Schwertelii], 1575. First edition compiled by Johannes Major. Octavo (6 x 3 5/8 inches; 153 x 93 mm). [148] leaves. With a woodcut device (a small portrait of Melanchthon) on title-page. Paste-paper lined boards, manuscript cloth tape label on spine ("Epigrams of Melancthon"). Pictorial bookplate of Ernest Dawson (founder of Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles' oldest bookstore in continuous operation) loose and laid in. Dawson's gift inscription to Muriel Bowler, later wife of physicist Sir William Hayward Pickering, Director of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1954 to 1976. A few instances of contemporary underlining to Petrus Vincentius' introduction. Wear and rubbing to board edges and extremities. Some chipping and light abrading to corners, spine ends, and joints. Corners slightly bumped but worn. Very light, uniform toning to pages. Overall, an internally clean and tight copy of this exceedingly scarce volume of Melanchthon's humanistic poetry and epigrams. In "Melanchthon as Praeceptor of Late-Humanist Poetry," Manfred P. Fleischer writes that this selection of Melanchthon's epigrams and poetry was compiled by his student, Johannes Major in 1575. Fleischer recognizes "six exclusive editions [of the Epigrammatum] by four of Melanchthon' s students," of which this was the fourth chronologically (in Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. XX, No. 4, 1989). Despite this output, locating any edition of Melanchthon's Epigrams at market is extremely difficult. In the past thirty years, not one copy has come up at auction. Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) was a German theologian and academic. A key leader of the Lutheran Reformation, he was a friend and close associate of Martin Luther.
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