1549 Illustrated Ovid with Latin Manuscript Epitaph

1549. Item #14

Ovidio Nason, Publio Metamorphoseon Libri XV. Venice, 1549. Folio, 29 x 21 cm. Later full calf with wear and rubbing, front hinge tender and showing slight separation at top. [6], [340 pgs. of 342; lacking the last leaf with colophon] Woodcuts. Internally, some occasionally edge spotting or toning, but generally very good.

One of the most interesting features of the volume is a MANUSCRIPT Latin epitaph written to the back of the title page in an early hand.

Provenance: important collector with his charming bookplate of Alfred Wolfgang Ritter Wurzbach von Tannenberg was the son of Alfred von Wurzbach and Eugenie v. Wurzbach, the daughter of the banker Joseph Lippmann von Lissingen. He was a great-grandson of the Ljubljana lawyer Maximilian von Wurzbach, who had been raised to the nobility, and the grandson of the biographical lexicographer Constantin von Wurzbach; earlier likely 17th century signatures to title page, and 16th century ownership signature (crossed out)

Rare illustrated edition of the Metamorphosis of Ovid, one of the most influential works in Western culture, The Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare.

Price: $1,000.00