VERGILE (Polydore) Lot n° 1

De inventoribus rerum prior editio. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1528 [at the end:] January 1529. In-4, 141 ff. and 27 ff.n.ch.: fawn morocco, frame decorated with two red and white scrolls enclosing a gilt scroll, large decoration of stylized foliage on a thousand-dot background unfolding around an oval medallion with a mosaic coat of arms, the whole enhanced with multicolored wax (pink, blue, green, black, red and white), spine decorated, gilt and chased edges (pastiche binding of Hagué). The only edition printed by the Estienne family of De inventoribus rerum by Polydore Vergile (c. 1470-1555), an Italian humanist who was secretary to the Duke of Urbino and later cameraman to Pope Alexander VI. Printed in Roman characters, it contains all eight books, the last five of which, originally published in 1521, deal with a burning subject: the origins and institutions of the Church. The work "lists the civilizing myths of Europe, proposing one or more heroes, demigods or prophets for each invention: religion, marriage, books, the art of memory, war, truces, fire, the forging of metals, agriculture, architecture, commerce, etc." The book is also an introduction to the history of the Church and its institutions. [...] Dealing with the "inventions" of the Church since the earliest times wasn't without risk, especially since Vergil took up some of Erasmus' criticisms [...] These were all arguments brought to the Reformation, which denounced with Luther and soon Calvin the infidelity of the Church of Rome toward the Gospel message. From the outset, Evangelicals and Protestants discerned in the De inventoribus a powerful critical charge against the established Church" (Frank Lestringant, "Le Livre des Inventeurs de Polydore Vergile" in Ouvrages miscellanées & Théories de la connaissance à la Renaissance,2003, pp. 37-56). This edition was condemned and put on the Index in 1549 by the Doctors of the Sorbonne. Remarkable Hagué binding with Renaissance