CORNARIUS (Johann). De convivorium veterum Græcorum,... Lot 39

CORNARIUS (Johann). De convivorium veterum Græcorum, & hoc tempore Germanorum ritibus, moribus ac sermonibus. Basle, (Joannis Oporini, September 1548). Small in-8, brown calf, cold-stamped frame and central finial on the boards, renewed laces (Binding of the period). 198 pp. and (1) f. Rare first edition of this work on the survival in Germany of the customs of the ancient Greeks that inspired fairs and carnivals. "This book is an inexhaustible mine of information on table customs, food, wine, beer, drunkenness, the feasts of the Ancients, those of the modern Germans, table music, the number of guests, etc." (Oberlé). The work includes comments by Cornarius (1500-1558), a Saxon physician, on the Banquets of Plato and Xenophon. Some old notes in the margins, and underlined passages. On the title, handwritten bookplate crossed out from a Jesuit library. Spine rebacked, hinge split, missing headpieces. Binding rubbed. Vicaire, 211 - Bitting, 99 - Oberlé Fastes, 65.