Nicolas Du Mortier. La Megalogia Del Microcosmo Overo.......

Description

Du Mortier, Nicolas [Nicolo, Nicolaus or Nicolao]. La Megalogia Del Microcosmo Overo, Il Raconto delle Grandezze del Mondo piccolo: Considerate nel Massimo tra gli huomini S. Gio. Battista. In otto Orationi...Con un' Appendice, detta il Microscopio, in cui, oltre la spiegatione di alcune etimologie greche, & ebraiche... Padua: Agostino Candiani for the Stamperia del Seminario, 1688.

First Edition. Square 8vo. A-V8. [16],291,[12]pp. Contemporary full limp vellum, some foxing,, some small pinworm holes, head of spine damaged, inner hinges opened,black marks on top and bottom edges (old owner's marks removed?), some foxing, small paper adherence on title-page.    Still, a very good copy. From the Krown & Spellman Collection.

Du Mortier (c1639-) French humanist who studied at Louvain and taught philosophy at the College du Lys. For a time he lived in Italy and entered the Camilliani. He was a student of Greek and Hebrew and the church. He was also the author of "Etymologiae Sacrae Graeco-Latinae, Seu E Graecis Fontibus Depromptae." He was an inquisititor and priest of the Camilliani, [the 'Ordine dei Chierici Regolari Ministri degli Infermi', or the 'Fathers of the Good Death.'] [see the notice in Jean Noel Paquot, Memoires...Pas-Bas,24ff.]

This rare work on the microcosm and macrocosm is divided into eight sections: Ne'Corpi Sublunari, e nel Ciel della Luna, le Grandezze del nostro Massimo Microcosmo, cola Fede, si observano simboleggiate...; Ciel di Mercurio...e ferma Speranza...; Venere, lo stato angelico...la sua ardentissima Carita...; Sole, la Prudenza...sue parti fuggettive, e potentiali...; Marte, l'imperturbabile Costanza...; Giove. la Giustitia..., Saturno, l'Armonia della mirabile Temperanza; & Firmamento, tante vaghissime costellationi del Massimo tra gli huomini puri... Each sphere is discussed in religious, philosophical, astronomical, historical and philological terms. Some use is made of Greek and Hebrew types in the text. The work is apparently quite rare we could find no references to it in any of our bibliographic sources in print or on line. Nor could we find a biography of the author. It surely is a work which requires further study. Two copies found in KVK (Italy & Regensburg).Not found in RLIN, OCLC, BL 17th Italian, Bruni/Evans, Viciniana, Houzeau/Lancaster, Thorndike, Riccardi, Olschki Choix, Graesse, or Brunet.