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SEMIC COMICS. 2001. In-4. Broché. Bon état, Couv. convenable, Dos satisfaisant, Intérieur frais. Environ 60 pages illustrées de nombreux dessins en couleurs dans le texte - 1er plat illustré d'un dessin en couleurs.. . . . Classification Dewey : 843.06-Bande dessinée
Reference : R320023732
Classification Dewey : 843.06-Bande dessinée
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5 book(s) with the same title
Danicorum Monumentorum Libri Sex: E spissis antiquitatum tenebris et in Dania ac Norvegia extantibus ruderibus eruti + Regum Daniae Series duplex et Limitum inter Daniam & Sveciam Descriptio. Ex vetustissimo Legum Scanicarum Literis Runicis in membran... - [THE FIRST WRITTEN STUDY OF RUNES]
Hafnia, Joachim Moltke, 1643 + Melchior Martzan, 1642. Small folio. Bound in a nice contemporary full calf binding with raised bands to richly gilt spine. Spine worn and corners bumped. A damp stain throughout, mostly faint. Title-page of ""Danicorum Moumentorum"" with a contemporary presentation-inscription to verso: ""Ex donatione amici et fautoris nei Secretarii Rejersen./ Wedege."" Contemporary handwritten corrections and additions to the Index. Engraved title-page (by Simon de Pas). (24), 526, (16) pp. + large folded woodcut plate (the Golden Horn). Large woodcuts in the text + (12), 36 pp. The text is in two columns, in Latin and runes. Captions and some runic letters printed in red.
Scarce first editions of both of Worm's famous masterpieces on runes - 1) ""Danicorum Monumentorum"" being Worm's runic magnum opus, which not only constitutes the first written study of runestones and the first scientific analysis of them, but also one of the only surviving sources for depictions of numerous runestones and inscriptions from Denmark, many of which are now lost"" 2) ""Regum Daniae"", which contains the highly important reproduction of The Law of Scania in runes as well as in Latin translation with commentaries. The ""Danicorum Monumentorum"", with its numerous woodcut renderings of monuments with rune-inscriptions - including the world-famous folded plate of the Golden Horn, which had been found only five year previously, and which is now lost - is arguably the most significant work on runes ever written, founding the study of runes and runic monuments. Most of the woodcuts were done after drawings by the Norwegian student Jonas Skonvig"" they are now of monumental importance to the study of runes and runic monuments, not only because they appeared here for the first time in print, but also because many of the monuments are now lost and these illustrations are the only surviving remains that we have. Ole Worm (Olaus Wormius) (1588-1655) was a famous Danish polymath, who was widely travelled and who had studied at a range of different European universities. Like many of the great intellectuals of the Early Modern era, Worm's primary occupation was as a physician, for which he gained wide renown. He later became court doctor to King Christian IV of Denmark. In 1621, Worm had become professor of physics, but already the year before, in 1620, had he begun the famous collection that would become one of the greatest cabinets of curiosites in Europe (and one of the first museums) and which would earn him the position as the first great systematic collector (within natural history) in Scandinavia. It was his then newly begun collection that enabled him, as professor of physics, to introduce demonstrative subject teaching at the university, as something completely new. He continued building and adding to his magnificent collection, now known as ""Museum Wormianum"", throughout the rest of his life. Worm's fascination for antiquarian subjects not only resulted in his famous ""Museum Wormianum"", but also in a deep fascination with early Scandinavian and runic literature and the history and meaning of runestones. These monuments found throughout Scandinavia, were carved with runic inscriptions and set in place from about the fourth to the twelfth centuries. In most cases, they are burial headstones, presumably for heroes and warriors.Worm published works on the runic calendar, translations of runic texts and explications of folklore associated with the runestone histories. By far his most extensive and important work was the ""Danicorum Monumentorum"", which was the first serious attempt at scientifically analyzing and recording all 144 then known runestone sites in Denmark. With the King's blessing and support, Worm contacted bishops all over the country who were instructed to provide details and drawings of the barrows, stone circles and carved inscriptions in their regions.Many of the monuments recorded in this splendid work have since disappeared. Some of them appeared in the fire of Copenhagen, to which they were brought at the request of Worm himself. The book thus contains highly valuable data about missing sites in Scandinavian archaeology and is an invaluable source to anyone studying runes and runic monuments. Included in the work are Worm's three earlier, small treatises on runes, here collected for the first time and set into a systematic an scientific context, among them his 1641 treatise on the Golden Horn. For Danes, the Golden Horns, discovered on 1639 and 1734 respectively, with their amazing, complicated, and tragic story, constitute the Scandinavian equivalent to the Egyptian pyramids and have been the object of the same kind of fascination here in the North, causing a wealth of fantastical interpretations, both historical, literary, mystical, linguistic, and artistic. The two golden horns constitute the greatest National treasure that we have. They are both from abound 400 AD and are thought to have been a pair. A span of almost 100 years elapsed between the finding of the first horn and the finding of the second. Both findings are now a fundamental part of Danish heritage. In 1802 the horns were stolen, and the story of this theft constitutes the greatest Danish detective story of all times. The thief was eventually caught, but it turned out that he had melted both of the horns and used the gold for other purposes.Before the horns were stolen, a copy of the horns was made and shipped to the King of Italy, but the cast which was used to make this copy was destroyed, before news had reached the kingdom of Denmark that the copies made from the cast were lost on their way to Italy, in a shipwreck. Worm's work constitutes not only the earliest description of the seminal first horn, but also the most important source that we now have to the knowledge of the horn. It is on the basis of the description and depiction in the present work that the later copies of the first horn were made. Both horns were found in Gallehus near Møgeltønder, the first in 1639, by Kirsten Svendsdatter, the second in 1734, by Jerk (Erik) Lassen.Kirsten Svendsdatter made her discovery on a small path near her house, initially thinking that she had stumbled upon a root. When she returned to the same place the following week, she dug up the alleged root with a stick, and took it for an old hunting horn. She brought it back home and began polishing it. During the polishing of it, a small piece broke off, which she brought to a goldsmith in Tønder. It turned out that the horn was made of pure gold, and rumors of Kirsten's find quickly spread. The horn was eventually brought to the King, Christian IV, and Kirsten was given a reward corresponding to the gold value of the horn. The king gave the horn to his son, who had a lid made for it so that he could use it as a drinking horn. An excavation of the site where the horn was found was begun immediately after, but nothing more was found - that is until 95 years later when Jerk Larsen was digging clay on his grounds - merely 25 paces from where Kirsten had found the first horn. The year was now 1734. The horn that Larsen found was a bit smaller in size and was lacking the tip, but it still weighed 3,666 kg. As opposed to the first horn, this second horn had a runic inscription. After the horn had been authenticated, it was sent to King Christian VI, where it was placed in a glass case in the royal art chamber, together with the first horn. Before being placed here, a copy was made of both horns. These copies were lost in a ship wreck, however, and the casts had already been destroyed. In the fatal year of 1802, the gold smith and counterfeiter Niels Heldenreich broke in to the royal art chamber and stole the horns. By the time the culprit was discovered, the horns were irrevocably lost - Heldenreich had melted them and used the gold to make other things, such as jewellery. A pair of ear rings that are still preserved are thought to have been made with gold from the horns, but this is all that we have left of the original horns. New horns were produced on the basis of the descriptions and engraved illustrations that were made after the finding of the horns. And thus, the plate used in the present works constitute our main source of knowledge of the appearance of the first horn. ""The longest of the golden horns was found in 1639 and described by Ole Worm in the book 'De Aureo Cornu', 1641 (a treatise which is also included in his greater ""Danicorum Monumentorum""). The German professor at Soro Academy Hendrich Ernst, disagreed with Worm’s interpretation of the horn. Ernst believed that the horn came from Svantevits temple on Rügen, while Worm interpreted it as a war trumpet from the time of Frode Fredegods, decorated with pictures, calling for virtue and good morals. Worm immediately sent his book to Prince Christian and the scholars at home and abroad. You can see in his letters, that not only did the horn make an impression, but also the letter and the interpretation. In that same year there were such lively discussions on the horn among the scholars of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad!In 1643 Worm reiterated the description of the golden horn in his great work on Danish runic inscriptions, 'Monumenta Danica'. In 1644, his descriptions of the horn reached for scholars and libraries in Schleswig, Königsberg, London, Rome, Venice and Padua. Several learned men wrote poems for him, and the golden horn was mentioned in an Italian manus. Map Cartoonist Johannes Meyer placed the finds on several of his map of South Jutland. When the Swedish commander Torstensson attacked Jutland in 1643, Peter Winstrup wrote a long poem in Latin addressed to the bishop of Scania (which at that time still belonged to Denmark), the poem was called 'Cornicen Danicus'. It was immediately translated into Danish, entitled 'The Danish Horn Blower'. He interpreted the horn and its images as an warning of war, and his interpretations were very hostile to the Swedish. Paul Egard and Enevold Nielssen Randulf were among some of the other scholars who interpreted the Golden Horn In the 1640s. They were both deans in Holstein, and had a more Christian interpretation of the horn.All these works were illustrated with copies of Worms depictions of the horn. The Golden Horn remained known throughout the 1600s, both in terms of interpretations of the horn and designs. The found of the short golden horn in 1734 renewed the interest of the meaning of the horns."" (National Museum of Denmark). Thesuarus: 727 & 733 Rejersen: Holmens chef Wedege: Regiments-Quarteer-Mester
Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza in Briefen an den Herrn Moses Mendelssohn. Neue vermehrte Auflage. - [THE FIRST EVER TRANSLATION OF BRUNO'S ""DE UNO ET CAUSA""...]
Breslau, Gottl. Löwe, 1789, 8vo. Very beautiful contemporary red full calf binding with five raised bands and gilt green leather title-label to richly gilt spine. elaborate gilt borders to boards, inside which a ""frame"" made up of gilt dots, with giltcorner-ornamentations. Edges of boards gilt and inner gilt dentelles. All edges gilt. Minor light brownspotting. Marginal staining to the last leaves. Engraved frontispiece-portrait of Spinoza, engraved title-vignette (double-portrait, of Lessing and Mendelssohn), engraved end-vignette (portrait of Jacobi). Frontispiece, title-page, LI, (1, -errata), 440 pp. Magnificent copy.
First edition thus, being the seminal second edition, the ""neue vermehrte Auflage"" (new and expanded edition), which has the hugely important 180 pp. of ""Beylage"" for the first time, which include the first translation into any language of any part of Giordano Bruno's ""de Uno et Causa..."" (pp. 261-306) as well as several other pieces of great importance to the ""Pantheismusstreit"" and to the interpretation of the philosophy of Spinoza and Leibniz, here for the first time in print. The present translation of Bruno seems to be the earliest translation of any of Bruno's works into German, and one of the earliest translations of Bruno at all - as far as we can establish, the second, only preceded by an 18th century translation into English of ""Spaccio della bestia trionfante"". It is with the present edition of Jacobi's work that the interest in Bruno is founded and with which Bruno is properly introduced to the modern world. Jacobi not only provides what is supposedly the second earliest translation of any of Bruno's works ever to appear, he also establishes the great influence that Bruno had on two of our greatest thinkers, Spinoza and Leibnitz. It is now generally accepted that Spinoza founds his ethical thought upon Bruno and that Lebnitz has taken his concept of the ""Monads"" from him. It is Jacobi who, with the second edition of his ""Letters on Spinoza..."", for the first time ever puts Bruno where he belongs and establishes his position as one of the key figures of modern philosophy and thought. Bruno's works, the first editions of which are all of the utmost scarcity, were not reprinted in their time, and new editions of them did not begin appearing until the 19th century. For three centuries his works had been hidden away in libraries, where only few people had access to them. Thus, as important as his teachings were, thinkers of the ages to come were largely reliant on more or less reliable renderings and reproductions of his thoughts. As Jacobi states in the preface to the second edition of his ""Letters on Spinoza..."", ""There appears in this new edition, under the title of Appendices (""Beylage""), different essays, of which I will here first give an account. The first Appendix is an excerpt from the extremely rare book ""De la causa, principio, et Uno"", by Jordan Bruno. This strange man was born, one knows not in which year, in Nola, in the Kingdom of Naples"" and died on February 17th 1600 in Rome on the stake. With great diligence Brucker has been gathering information on him, but in spite of that has only been able to deliver fragments [not in translation]. For a long time his works were, partly neglected due to their obscurity, partly not respected due to the prejudice against the new opinions and thoughts expressed in them, and partly loathed and suppressed due to the dangerous teachings they could contain. On these grounds, the current scarcity of his works is easily understood. Brucker could only get to see the work ""De Minimo"", La Croce only had the book ""De Immenso et Innumerabilibus"" in front of him, or at least he only provides excerpts from this [also not in translation], as Heumann does only from the ""Physical Theorems"" [also small fragments, not in translation]"" also Bayle had, of Bruno's metaphysical works, himself also merely read this work, of which I here provide an excerpt."" (Vorrede, pp. (VII)-VIII - own translation from the German). Jacobi continues by stating that although everyone complains about the obscurity of Bruno's teachings and thoughts, some of the greatest thinkers, such as Gassendi, Descartes, ""and our own Leibnitz"" (p. IX) have taken important parts of their theorems and teachings from him. ""I will not discuss this further, and will merely state as to the great obscurity (""grossen Dunkelheit"") of which people accuse Bruno, that I have found this in neither his book ""de la Causa"" nor in ""De l'Infinito Universo et Mondi"", of which I will speak implicitly on another occasion. As to the first book, my readers will be able to judge for themselves from the sample (""Probe"") that I here present. My excerpt can have become a bit more comprehensible due to the fact that I have only presented the System of Bruno himself, the ""Philosophia Nolana"" which he himself calls it, in its continuity... My main purpose with this excerpt is, by uniting Bruno with Spinoza, at the same time to show and explain the ""Summa of Philosophy"" (""Summa der Philosophie"") of ""En kai Pan"" [in Greek characters - meaning ""One and All""]. ... It is very difficult to outline ""Pantheism"" in its broader sense more purely and more beautifully than Bruno has done."" (Vorrede pp. IX-XI - own translation from the German). So not only does Jacobi here provide this groundbreaking piece of Bruno's philosophy in the first translation ever, and not only does he provide one of the most important interpretations of Spinoza's philosophy and establishes the importance of Bruno to much of modern thought, he also presents Bruno as the primary exponent of ""pantheism"", thereby using Bruno to change the trajectory of modern thought and influencing all philosophy of the decades to come. After the second edition of Jacobi's ""Ueber die Lehre des Spinoza"", no self-respecting thinker could neglect the teachings of Bruno"" he could no longer be written off as having ""obscure"" and insignificant teachings, and one could no longer read Spinoza nor Leibnitz without thinking of Bruno. It is with this edition that the world rediscovers Bruno, never to forget him again.WITH THE FIRST EDITION OF ""UEBER DIE LEHRE DES SPINOZA"" (1785), JACOBI BEGINS THE FAMOUS ""PATHEISMUSSTREIT"", which focused attention on the apparent conflict between human freedom and any systematic, philosophical interpretation of reality. In 1780, Jacobi (1743-1819), famous for coining the term nihilism, advocating ""belief"" and ""revelation"" instead of speculative reason, thereby anticipating much of present-day literature, and for his critique of the Sturm-und-Drang-era, had a conversation with Lessing, in which Lessing stated that the only true philosophy was Spinozism. This led Jacobi to a protracted and serious study of Spinoza's works. After Lessing's death, in 1783 Jacobi began a lengthy letter-correspondende with Mendelssohn, a close friend of Lessing, on the philosophy of Spinoza. These letters, with commentaries by Jacobi, are what constitute the first edition of ""Ueber die lehre des Spinoza"", as well as the first part of the second edition. The second edition is of much greater importance, however, due to greatly influential Appendices. The work caused great furor and the enmity of the Enlightenment thinkers. Jacobi was ridiculed by his contemporaries for attempting to reintroduce into philosophy belief instead of reason, was seen as an enemy of reason and Enlightenment, as a pietist, and as a Jesuit. But the publication of the work not only caused great furor in wider philosophical circles, there was also a personal side to the scandal which has made it one of the most debated books of the period: ""Mendelssohn enjoyed, as noted at the outset, a lifelong friendship with G. E. Lessing... Along with Mendelssohn, Lessing embraced the idea of a purely rational religion and would endorse Mendelssohn's declaration: ""My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means"" and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths"" (Gesammelte Schriften, Volume 3/2, p. 205). To pietists of the day, such declarations were scandalous subterfuges of an Enlightenment project of assimilating religion to natural reason... While Mendelssohn skillfully avoided that confrontation, he found himself reluctantly unable to remain silent when, after Lessing's death, F. H. Jacobi contended that Lessing embraced Spinoza's pantheism and thus exemplified the Enlightenment's supposedly inevitable descent into irreligion.Following private correspondence with Jacobi on the issue and an extended period when Jacobi (in personal straits at the time) did not respond to his objections, Mendelssohn attempted to set the record straight about Lessing's Spinozism in ""Morning Hours"". Learning of Mendelssohn's plans incensed Jacobi who expected to be consulted first and who accordingly responded by publishing, without Mendelssohn's consent, their correspondence - ""On the Teaching of Spinoza in Letters to Mr. Moses Mendelssohn"" - a month before the publication of ""Morning Hours"". Distressed on personal as well as intellectual levels by the controversy over his departed friend's pantheism, Mendelssohn countered with a hastily composed piece, ""To the Friends of Lessing: an Appendix to Mr. Jacobi's Correspondence on the Teaching of Spinoza"". According to legend, so anxious was Mendelssohn to get the manuscript to the publisher that, forgetting his overcoat on a bitterly cold New Year's eve, he delivered the manuscript on foot to the publisher. That night he came down with a cold from which he died four days later, prompting his friends to charge Jacobi with responsibility for Mendelssohn's death.The sensationalist character of the controversy should not obscure the substance and importance of Mendelssohn's debate with Jacobi. Jacobi had contended that Spinozism is the only consistent position for a metaphysics based upon reason alone and that the only solution to this metaphysics so detrimental to religion and morality is a leap of faith, that salto mortale that poor Lessing famously refused to make. Mendelssohn counters Jacobi's first contention by attempting to demonstrate the metaphysical inconsistency of Spinozism. He takes aim at Jacobi's second contention by demonstrating how the ""purified Spinozism"" or ""refined pantheism"" embraced by Lessing is, in the end, only nominally different from theism and thus a threat neither to religion nor to morality."" (SEP).The Beylagen, which are not included in the 1785 first edition and only appear with the 1789 second edition, include: I. Auszug aus Jordan Bruno von Nola. Von der Ursache, dem Princip und dem Einen (p. 261-306) II. Diokles an Diotime über den Atheismus (p. 307-327) translation of Lettre ... sur l'Athéisme by F. Hemsterhuis.
Le cuisinier roial et bourgeois, Qui apprend à ordonner toute forte de Repas, & la meilleure maniere des Ragoûts les plus à la mode & les plus exquis. Ouvrage tres-utile dans les Familles, & singulierement necessaire à tous Maîtres d'Hôtels, & Ecuîer... - [THE FIRST ALPHEBETIZED COOKBOOK - CONTAINING THE FIRST PRINTED RECIPE FOR CREME BRULÉE]
Paris, Charles de Sercy, 1691. Small 8vo. Contemporary full mottled calf with five raised bands to richly gilt spine. All edges of boards gilt. Spine worn, especially at top and bottom, which lack pieces of leather (conserved). Outer hinges worn and weak, so capital bands are showing, but inner hinges are fine and tight. First ab. 10 leaves with a mostly light damp stain. Last 17¤ of leaves with small worm-holes, almost solely marginal, not affecting text, and mostly single holes. All in all internally very nice and clean. [20], 505, [46] pp.
Exceedingly scarce first edition of one of the most important cookbooks ever printed, being the first to contain alphabetized recipes. In this masterpiece in the history of cookery, we find the first printed recipe for crème brulee, the first printed recipe for meringue and the first known food recipes to contain chocolate. Furthermore, Massialot’s magnum opus includes the “Macreuse en ragout au chocolate”, which is possibly the first known Aztec recipe in a European cookbook. “Massialot, who lived from 1660 to 1733, served as chef de cuisine for various high-ranking Frenchmen, including Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. He’s best known for his “Nouveau cuisinier royal et bourgeois”... In the book he not only laid out recipes for the meals he prepared for royals, but he was also the first to alphabetize recipes, and both meringues and crème brûlée made their first appearances in the book.” (Dan Meyers in The Daily Meal: 10 Chefs Who Changed the Way We Eat). “Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois” consists of two parts, the first consisting in descriptions of menus for a whole year. Many of these had been prepared at court and both dates and hosts are mentioned in the book. The second part consists in the actual cookbook and constitututes the first cookbook in which the recipes are alphabetically ordered. They are ordered to the chief ingredient and there are often variations for flesh- and fishdays. The book is now worldwide-famous for the invention of crème brulée, for the first recipe of meringue and for the novel recipes containing chocolate: one in a sauce for wigeon or scoter, the other in a sweet custard. Up until then, chocolate had been consumed solely as a drink. Another of Massialot’s innovations presented in the present work is that of adding a glass of white wine to fish stock. The “Macreuse en ragoût au chocolate” (duck stewed in chocolate)-recipe, which also appears here for the first time and is thought to be the first known Aztec recipe in a European cookbook, was reproduced by Alexandre Dumas in his dictionary of cookery in 1872, where he calls it a “masterpiece.” Massialot was extremely influential, both in France and abroad. The recipes in the present work were initially intended for nobility, but they eventually made their way to public restaurants founded by former cooks of the court after the French Revolution. The book is one of the key foundation stones for restaurants as we know them today. The work was extremely popular and kept appearing throughout several centuries. A second edition appeared in 1693, a third in 1698, and then it appeared again in 1705 and 1709. In 1712 it was expanded to two volumes and in 1733-34 it was revised and expanded to three. The work was translated into English as early as 1702 as “The Court and the Country Cook” and had an enormous influence on English cooking as well. François Massialot (1660, in Limoges– 1733, in Paris) served as chef de cuisine (officier de bouche) to various illustrious personages, including Phillipe I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, and his son Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. In his preface, Massialot describes himself as ""a cook who dares to qualify himself royal, and it is not without cause, for the meals which he describes...have all been served at court or in the houses of princes, and of people of the first rank."" Serving banquets at places like the Versailles, this can hardly be said to be an overstatement. The first edition of this milestone of cookery is of the utmost scarcity. According to OCLC, merely five copies are located worldwide (two in the US and three in Europe) and not a single copy is traceable at actions. Vicaire: 573 (“Première edition, très rare”).
"PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO [GIANFRANCESCO, GIANFRAN, JOHANNES FRANCISCUS PICUS].
Reference : 47246
(1520)
Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium, et veritatis christianae disciplinae, distinctum in libros sex, quorum tres omnem philosophorum sectam universim, reliqui aristoteleam et aristotelis armis particulatim impugnant. Ubicunque autem Christiania et asse... - [THE FIRST PUBLIC INTRODUCTION OF GREEK SCEPTICISM TO THE MODERN WORLD]
Mirandulae, Ioannes Maciochius Bundenius, 1520 (on colophon). [Mirandola, Mazzocchi]. Small folio. Contemporary full vellum binding with handwritten title to spine. Author written in contemporary hand to lower edge. Binding professionally restored, at lower part of spine, edges of boards, and corners of back board. Free end-papers renewed. First leaf restored, with lower blank part supplied in later paper - no loss of text! This lower part was blank on both recto and verso. A bit of soiling to upper part of this leaf, as well as two old owner's inscriptions. First few leaves a bit browned, not heavily. Otherwise only light scattered browning. Some small marginal worm-holes to inner and lower blank margins, far from affecting text. All in all very fine, nice, and clean. Woodcut device to final leaf. (6), 208 ff.
The seminal first edition of Gianfrancesco Pico's main work, the work which publicly introduces Greek scepticism to the modern world (i.e. the Reniassance) for the first time and thus comes to play a seminal role in the development of modern thought. With this work, Pico becomes the first modern thinker to specifically use the theories of Sextus Empiricus, foreshadowing the great ""Sceptical Revolution"" of the later Renaissance as well as the ideas of later modern thinkers such as Montesquieu. The ""Examen"" furthermore introduces other important critiques of Aristotle that were not generally known at the time (and works that had not yet been published) as well as a completely new sort of attack upon the theories of Aristotle that come to play an important role in later Renaissance Aristotle scholarship. ""But his ""Examen Vanitatis Doctrinae Gentium et Veritatis Disciplinae Christianae"" is not only a criticism of human knowledge which can, as has been done, be compared with Montaigne. It is also a wholesale destruction of the whole world of human values, of that ""regnum hominis"" so dear to the Renaissance. And as such, it inclines one to think that it anticipated Pascal. [...]."" (Garin, p. 135)The ""Examen"" is considered foundational in ""anti-pagan"" historiography of thought, ""a work that deserves special attention here as the earliest example of an ""anti-pagan"" reaction in the Renaissance historiography of thought, and as the first in a line of publications preparing the way for the anti-apologists of the seventeenth century. ..."" (Hanegraaff, ""Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture"", p. 81). It is due to this work that Gianfr. Pico is now remembered as ""the first modern sceptic"". ""Joining the sceptical arguments of Sextus, which he quoted and used liberally, to Savonarola's negative view of natural knowledge, he presented the first text since antiquity utilizing Pyrrhonism, using it to illuminate knowledge by faith!"" (Popkin, p. 24). Gianfr. Pico, a learned scholar and apt reader of classical texts, was the first Renaissance thinker that we know to have seriously studied and used the works of Sextus Empiricus, which were not printed until the 1560'ies, causing a revolution in Renaissance thinking. ""No discovery of the Renaissance remains livelier in modern philosophy than scepticism"". (Copenhaver & Schmitt, p. 338). ""The revived skepticism of Sextus Empiricus was the strongest single agent of disbelief"". (ibid., p. 346).""The printing of Sextus in the 1560s opened a new era in the history of scepticism, which had begun in the late fourth century BCE with the teachings of Pyrrho of Elis. [...] Before the Estienne and Hervet editions, Sextus seems to have had only two serious students, Gianfrancesco Pico at the turn of the century and Francesco Robortello about fifty years later."" (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 240-41).""No significant use of Pyrrhonian ideas prior to the printing of Sextus' """"Hypotyposes"" [in the 1560'ies] has turned up, except for that of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola"". (Popkin, p. 19). Giovanni Francesco [Gianfranceso] Pico della Mirandola (1470-1533), not to be confused with his uncle Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) was a highly important Renaissance thinker and philosopher, who was strongly influenced by the Neoplatonic tradition, but even more so by the preaching of Girolamo Savonarola, whose thought he defended throughout his life. Just like his uncle, Gianfr. Pico devoted his life to philosophy, but being a follower of Savonarola and having a Christian mission, he made it subject to the Bible. He even depreciated the authority of the philosophers, above all of Aristotle.It is in the ""Examen"", Gianfr. Pico's main work, that his sceptical arguments are developed to their fullest extent, and it is here that he not only discusses at length Pyrrhonism, based on Sextus' ""Hypotyposes""( which were only published more than 40 years later), and deals in detail with Sextus' ""Adversus Mathematicos"" (also only published more than 40 years later), propounding his own ideas and attacking Aristotle, he also provides lengthy ""summaries"" of Sextus' texts, which seem more like actual translations than interpretations or paraphrases.As Charles Schmitt also shows, the younger Pico must have read Sextus in a Greek manuscript, as the texts of Sextus were not printed before the 1560'ies, when the Hervet- and the Estienne-editions appear, causing what we would call ""´The Sceptical Revolution of the Renaissance"", a turning point in the history of modern thought. Apparently, Gianfr. Pico used a codex that belonged to Giorgio Antonio Vespucci. It was during an enforced exile around 1510 that Gianfr. Pico set to work on his ""Examen Vanitatis Doctrinae Gentium"", which was published for the first time in 1520 and dedicated to Pope Leo X. The work was printed in a small edition by an obscure press in his own little principality at Mirandola, which explains its scarcity. In the ""Examen"" ""Pico introduced the actual sceptical arguments of Sextus Empiricus, plus some newer additions, in order to demolish all philosophical views, especially those of Aristotle, and to show that only Christian knowledge, as stated in the Scriptures, is true and certain."" (Popkin, pp. 20-21). But although he here carefully set forth the ancient sceptical criticisms of sensory knowledge claims and of the rational criteria that let us judge what is true and false, it is important to remember that he did not as such advocate scepticism, rather, he used it for his own means. Using the ancient sceptical arguments as ammunition to undermine the confidence in natural knowledge, his aim was to lead people to see that the only real and reliable knowledge is revealed knowledge. He denounces all pagan philosophical claims, attacks Aristotle's theory of knowledge with the arguments of Sextus, all the time regarding Christianity as immune to sceptical infection, because it does not depend upon the dogmatic philosophies that Sextus had refuted. In his use of Sceptical arguments, Gianfr. Pico was not only doing something completely new in a Renaissance setting (i.e. reviving and using sceptical arguments at all), he was doing something completely new as such. The original Pyrrhonian formulations were primarily directed against Stoic and Epicurean theories of knowledge, and traditionally they were not directed towards the all-overshadowing dominating theories of Aristotle. As such, Gianfr. Pico makes Aristotelianism more of an empirical theory than it was traditionally viewed, and also in this did the ""Examen"" come to have groundbreaking influence. He furthermore introduces several critiques of Aristotelianism that were not generally known at the time, such as that of Hasdai Crecas (15th century Jewish Spanish thinker), whose work had not yet been published and which only existed in Jewish manuscript, as well as that of the late Hellenistic commentator John Philoponous, who later came to play an important role in Renaissance readings of Aristotle. ""As early as 1496 [originally printed 1497], in one of his first works, ""On the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy"", he distinguished divine philosophy, rooted in scripture, from human philosophy based on reason"" he denied that Christians need human wisdom, which is as likely to hinder as to help the quest for salvation. By 1514 he had completed a longer and sterner work, ""The Weighing of Empty Pagan Learning against True Christian Doctrine, Divided into Six Books, of Which Three Oppose the whole Sect of Philosophers in General, while the Others Attack the Aristotelian Sect Particularly, and with Aristotelian Weapons, but Christian Teaching is Asserted and Celebrated throughout the Whole"". As its title suggests, the ""Examen"", published in 1520, hardened Pico's hostility to pagan philosophy. Just when Luther was making the Bible the sole rule of faith, Pico discredited every source of knowledge except scripture and condemned all attempts to find truth elsewhere as ""vanitas"", emptiness" profane knowledge is at best a distraction from the work of salvation, as some of the greatest Fathers had taught. Pico's purpose was sincerely religious and only incidentally philosophical much of Renaissance scepticism remained true to his pious motives, though they were not fully appreciated for forty years after he wrote. By demolishing secular thought, Pico hoped to empty the human mind of reason and make a clear channel for God's grace man's only intellectual security lay in church authority. Convinced of Christianity's unique value, he turned his uncle's eirenic learning to contrary purposes, working skillfully with Greek manuscripts to make his humanism a potent weapon against religious error. [...].Pico devoted most of his first three books to reproducing the arguments of Sextus Empiricus against the various schools of ancient philosophy" in Books IV and V he turned scepticism against Aristotle. His extensive borrowings from Sextus often come closer to translation than paraphrase or analysis, and his choices are therapeutic rather than theoretical. Aristotle had to go because he was the chief source of secular contagion among the faithful, and Sextus was the best medicine available. Pico regarded Christianity itself as immune to sceptical infection because it does not depend on the dogmatic philosophies that Sextus had refuted. [...]"". (Copenhaver & Schmitt, pp. 245-46). The ""Examen"" marks a turning-point in the history of Renaissance thought and the development of modern philosophy. The importance of the revival of scepticism can hardly be over-estimated, and Gianfr. Pico's use of the sceptical arguments which he utilizes in the ""Examen"" would prove to be highly important and influential. But the revival that Gianfr. Pico is thus responsible for, not only comes to serve his own purpose, as history will prove, the sword is two-edged.Claiming in the ""Examen"" that ""the works assigned to Aristotle were doubtfully authentic" his sense-based epistemology could not produce reliable data his doctrines, often presented with deliberate obscurity, had been disputed by opponents and followers alike and had been criticized by Christian theologians" even Aristotle himself was uncertain about some of them. Aristotelian philosophy, the pinnacle of human wisdom, was therefore shown to be constructed on the shakiest of foundations. Christian dogma, by contrast, was built on the bedrock of divine authority and therefore could not be undermined by the sceptical critique. Or so he believed, unaware that scepticism, which he had revived as an ally of Christianity, would eventually become a powerful weapon in the hands of its enemies."" (Jill Kraye: ""Two Cultures: Scholasticism and Humanism in the Early Renaissance"", in: The Philosophy of the Italian Renaissance). ""Defended by ancient philosophers such as Sextus Empiricus, refuted by Augustine (De civitate dei (11,26): ""Even if I am mistaken, I exist"""" a clear anticipation of Descartes' cogito), Scepticism was revived in the Middle Ages by Nicholas of Autrecourt (whose works were burned by papal order in 1347). By the Renaissance, this tendency came to be linked with fideism (Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus, Montaigne, Gassendi, Daniel Huet, and Pierre Bayle, to name but a few), leading, in one way or another, to its modern culmination in Hume."" (Black Swans, the Brain, and Philosophy as a Way of Life : Pierre Hadot and Nassim Taleb on Ancient Scepticism).""Gianfrancesco's most important philosophical work, probably written sometime after 1510 and published in 1520, was ""Examen vanitatis doctrinae gentium"", which is especially important because it marks the first serious attempt to adapt the Pyrrhonist (radically skeptical) philosophical ideas of the Hellenistic philosopher Sextus Empiricus to contemporary intellectual discourse."" (Charles G. Nauert: ""Historical Dictionary of Renaissance"", 2004).See: Popkin: ""The History of Scepticism. From Savonarola to Bayle"", 2003"" Schmitt: ""Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (1469-1533) and his critique of Aristotle"", 1967"" Copenhaver & Schmitt: ""Renaissance Philosophy"", 1992"" Garin: Italian Humanism"", 1965.Adams P:1156.
De aureo Cornu. Dissertatio. - [THE FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT TREATISE ON THE GOLDEN HORN]
Hafniae (Copenhagen), Melchior Matzan, Joachim Moltke, 1641. Small folio. Bound in an newer absolutely exquisite full mottled calf pastiche-binding with five raised bands and gilt title-label to richly gilt spine. Gilt ornamental borders with gilt corner-pieces to boards, all edges of boards gilt, and inner gilt dentelles. Title-page restored at inner hinge, far from affecting print. Some leaves slighly dusty and some mostly light brownspotting. Overall very nice indeed. The folded plate neatly re-enforced at the foldings, from verso, and on stub. ""Dupl"" written in hand to upper right corner of title-page and with two stamps to verso: ""Museum Britannicum"" and ""British Museum Sale Duplicate 1787"". (8), 72 pp. + large folded engraved plate of the horn.
Exceedingly scarce first printing of one of the most important works in Scandinavian history. Worm’s monumental 1641-treatise is the first and single most important work on what is arguably the most famous Danish cultural artifact, namely the first Golden Horn, and constitutes our primary source of knowledge of that now lost treasure. For Danes, the Golden Horns, discovered on 1639 and 1734 respectively, with their amazing, complicated, and tragic story, constitute the Scandinavian equivalent to the Egyptian pyramids and have been the object of the same kind of fascination here in the North, causing a wealth of fantastical interpretations, both historical, literary, mystical, linguistic, and artistic. The two golden horns constitute the greatest National treasure that we have. They are both from abound 400 AD and are thought to have been a pair. A span of almost 100 years elapsed between the finding of the first horn and the finding of the second. Although the first was by far the most important, both findings are now a fundamental part of Danish cultural heritage. In 1802 the horns were stolen, and the story of this theft became the greatest Danish detective story of all times. The thief was eventually caught, but it turned out that he had melted both of the horns and used the gold for other purposes. Before the horns were stolen, a copy of the horns was made and shipped to the King of Italy, but the cast which was used to make this copy was destroyed, before news had reached the kingdom of Denmark that the copies made from the cast were lost on their way to Italy, in a shipwreck. Worm's work constitutes not only the earliest description of the seminal first horn, but also the most important source that we now have to the knowledge of the horn. It is on the basis of the description and depiction in the present work that the later copies of the first horn were made. Both horns were found in Gallehus near Møgeltønder, the first in 1639, by Kirsten Svendsdatter, the second in 1734, by Jerk (Erik) Lassen. Kirsten Svendsdatter made her discovery on a small path near her house, initially thinking that she had stumbled upon a root. When she returned to the same place the following week, she dug up the alleged root with a stick, and mistook it for an old hunting horn. She brought it back home and began polishing it. During the polishing of it, a small piece broke off, which she brought to a goldsmith in Tønder. It turned out that the horn was made of pure gold, and rumors of Kirsten's find quickly spread. The horn was eventually brought to the King, Christian IV, and Kirsten was given a reward corresponding to the gold value of the horn. The king gave the horn to his son, who had a lid made for it so that he could use it as a drinking horn. An excavation of the site where the horn was found was begun immediately after, but nothing more was found - that is until 95 years later when Jerk Larsen was digging clay on his grounds - merely 25 paces from where Kirsten had found the first horn. The year was now 1734. The horn that Larsen found was a bit smaller in size and was lacking the tip, but it still weighed 3,666 kg. After the horn had been authenticated, it was sent to King Christian VI, where it was placed in a glass case in the royal art chamber, together with the first horn. Before being placed here, a copy was made of both horns. These copies were the ones lost in the ship wreck, however, and as mentioned the casts had already been destroyed. In the fatal year of 1802, the gold smith and counterfeiter Niels Heldenreich broke in to the royal art chamber and stole the horns. By the time the culprit was discovered, the horns were irrevocably lost - Heldenreich had melted them and used the gold to make other things, such as jewellery. A pair of earrings that are still preserved are thought to have been made with gold from the horns, but this is all that we have now have of the original horns. New horns were produced on the basis of the descriptions and engraved illustrations that were made after the finding of the horns. The plate in the present work constitutes our main source of knowledge of the appearance of the first horn and is the single most important depiction of it, forming the basis of the reproductions. ""The longest of the golden horns was found in 1639 and described by Ole Worm in the book 'De Aureo Cornu', 1641 (a treatise which is also included in his greater ""Danicorum Monumentorum"" [1643]). The German professor at Soro Academy Hendrich Ernst, disagreed with Worm’s interpretation of the horn. Ernst believed that the horn came from Svantevits temple on Rügen, while Worm interpreted it as a war trumpet from the time of Frode Fredegods, decorated with pictures, calling for virtue and good morals. Worm immediately sent his book to Prince Christian and the scholars at home and abroad. You can see in his letters, that not only did the horn make an impression, but also the letter and the interpretation. In that same year there were such lively discussions on the horn among the scholars of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad! In 1643 Worm reiterated the description of the golden horn in his great work on Danish runic inscriptions, 'Monumenta Danica'. In 1644, his descriptions of the horn reached scholars and libraries in Schleswig, Königsberg, London, Rome, Venice and Padua. Several learned men wrote poems for him, and the golden horn was mentioned in an Italian manus. Map Cartoonist Johannes Meyer placed the finds on several of his map of South Jutland. When the Swedish commander Torstensson attacked Jutland in 1643, Peter Winstrup wrote a long poem in Latin addressed to the bishop of Scania (which at that time still belonged to Denmark), the poem was called 'Cornicen Danicus'. It was immediately translated into Danish, entitled 'The Danish Horn Blower'. He interpreted the horn and its images as a warning of war, and his interpretations were very hostile to the Swedish. Paul Egard and Enevold Nielssen Randulf were among some of the other scholars who interpreted the Golden Horn In the 1640s. They were both deans in Holstein, and had a more Christian interpretation of the horn. All these works were illustrated with copies of Worms depictions of the horn. The Golden Horn remained known throughout the 1600s, both in terms of interpretations of the horn and designs. The found of the short golden horn in 1734 renewed the interest of the meaning of the horns."" (National Museum of Denmark). This monument of Danish cultural history is incredibly scarce in the trade. We have never seen a copy before, and there is not a single auction record traceable.
