Description:
4to, pp. [52], 635, [1 (blank)]; title copper-engraved and 21 full-page copper-engravings printed in text (of which 8 duplicates); bound without bifolium a2.3 (dedication, see below); tear repaired to a4 (with no loss); a good copy very lightly washed, bound in early twentieth-century limp vellum, spine lettered in red and black ink.Second edition, expanded and extended, with a new series of striking venatic plates. The series of plates (attributable to Nicolas Perrey, who signs the title), showing composite scenes of hunters pursuing animals from birds and fish to lions and elephants, is wholly new, replacing the woodcut illustrations of the first edition of 1621. The engravings were reused in 1630, though the pruning and ploughing plate (p. 471) would be omitted from the later edition. In addition to the expansion of the first four books, the second edition is for the first time accompanied by a fifth book 'della villa', on the management of agricultural estates. Copies seem to exist in three… Read More