POLDO D'ALBENAS (Jean). Discours historial de l'antique et i - Lot 34

POLDO D'ALBENAS (Jean). Discours historial de l'antique et illustre cité de Nismes, en la Gaule Narbonoise, avec les portraitz des plus antiques et insignes bastimens dudit lieu, reduitz à leur vraye mesure et proportion, ensemble de l'antique et moderne ville. A Lyon, par Guillaume Rouille, 1560. in-folio, (6 ff.), 226 pp. (7 ff.), 10 plates. Fawn calf, 5-ribbed spine with r. and v. title, wide dent. on covers, small dent. inside, gilt edges (Binding circa 1840). First edition of this handsome illustrated book, with an attractive titlefrontispicedrawn by P. Eskrick dit P. Vase (reproduced by Baudrier, IX, 217 bis), published indifferently under the date 1559 or 1560. This is the only Renaissance work devoted to the history of the city of Nîmes. A "curious work" according to Brunet, it was written by Nîmes historian and lawyer Jean Poldo d'Albenas (1512-1563). Although written in a naïve and unacademic language, it is without doubt his most remarkable work, the fruit of numerous observations and research. In it, he describes the most beautiful ancient monuments, such as the Temple de la Fontaine, the Maison Carrée, the Pont du Gard, the amphitheatre and more. The work concludes with an interesting Table of names, in Alphabet order, of the most memorable places, towns, rivers & mountains in the Narbonoise Province, according to its ancient extent, & some adiacen places. But this Discourse is also noteworthy for its wood-engraved illustrations, comprising 6 figures in the text or on full pages, including a representation of the Circuit des murs antiques de Nismes, a plan of the town of Nîmes, 2 column figures and 2 medallion figures, as well as 10 plates, 4 of which are fold-outs, depicting the monuments described, plans, as well as decorative and architectural elements. True to the style of illustrations of this kind at the time, with no real perspective, they are nonetheless among the earliest known illustrations of these monuments. A FINE COPY. Inf. wetness at extreme edge, in margin. Baudrier, IX, p. 268; Brun, p. 284; Brunet, IV, 775.