METAMORPHOSES

Paris: Hieronymum de Marnes, & viduam Culielmi Cauellat [Jérôme de Marnef et Guillaume Cavellat], 1583. Second Paris Edition. Hardcover. 16mo., [8], 178, [3] leaves; Fair; bound in early brown calf, paneled spine; moderate qwear and rubbing to binding, front board detached, rear board partly detached; marbled endpapers; bookplate to ffep; wear to the fore edge of the first 30 leaves; top edge trimmed, with some minor loss to text; embossed stamp to title page, verso of rear endpaper with library withdrawn stamp; name in ink to recto of ffep; gatherings in 8; water-staining to lower edge of first 16 leaves; mild wear to pages; profusely illustrated with in-text woodcuts;




RR consignment; shelved case 3. USTC: 170682; Pettegree: 81448;




Extremely scarce, with the USTC only showing 6 copies, Worldcat with an additional 4 copies.;




"With borrowed plates from the cycle of 178 woodcuts produced by Bernard Salomon for a French (and Dutch) simplified Ovid, the Métamorphose Figurée (Lyon, 1557). Spreng's allegorical commentary in Latin." With Salomon's woodcuts there were three known Parisian editions, in 1570, 1583, and 1587 with Salomon's woodcuts. "Spreng appends to each image a prose summary drawn from the work of "Luctatius" and to these summaries he then appends his own verse "expositions" and "allegories"; in this way Spreng's text actually serves up four Ovid recastings in one." [UVA]. 1335238. Shelved Dupont Bookstore.