Description

12mo., First Edition, with a woodcut title-vignette and three different fine woodcut tailpieces; later eighteenth century mottled calf boards, original calf backstrip with five raised bands, compartments richly tooled in gilt, second compartment with original leather label lettered in gilt 'Danes Notitie Temporu', red edges, marbled endpapers, backstrip chipped with minor loss at tail, a splendidly fresh, crisp, clean copy with broad margins preserving all the printed marginalia. With the ['Cum Approbatione'] leaves 'Approbatio Censoris Apostolici atque Caesari' (G.F. Dequareux) and 'Approbatio Ordinarii' (N.L. De Schodt). Text in Latin throughout; some sections (notably the succession of Roman emperors and the calendar of Popes) in double-column. Lovely copy in contemporary binding of the first edition of Danes' 'General Knowledge of the Times'. Danes (1684-1736) was born in Cassel ['Caseltano'] but spent much of his life in Louvain, where he became rector of the university in 1735. This first edition [and we believe the only edition printed at Ypres?] is scarce. It was supplemented by several later editions printed in Venice and Louvain.