A Frankfurt piracy of Aldrovandi's Ornithologiae

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Rare Books, Autographs & Maps

By Doyle

Nov 25, 2025

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• Lot Description
  ALDROVANDI, ULISSE Ornithologiæ. Hoc est, de avibus historiæ libri XII. Frankfurt: Wolfgang Richter and Nicho, 1610. First edition thus. [12], 427, [14] pp.; bound with Ornithologiæ. Tomus alter. Frankfurt: Wolfgang Richter, 1610. [6], 373, [14] pp.; bound with Ornithologiæ. Tomus tertius et ultimus. Frankfurt: Nikolaus Hoffman and Johann Traudt. [8], 209, [12]. Three volumes in one. Contemporary polished calf with a center Arma Christi motif in gilt to both covers and in five (of six) spine compartments. Gilt-stamped title in the second compartment from the top. Binding is a bit battered: some pasteboard is exposed where there has been damage to the leather of both covers at the lower fore-corner and to the upper fore-corner of the back cover. The front free endpaper is a bit loose; otherwise a sound copy. Intermittently toned and browned. Paper defects and worming have led to a few small holes, mostly not affecting text. Loss to the foredge on leaf H1 of the first volume. Small tape repairs on three leaves, not affecting text or image. An early owner has corrected in manuscript the erroneous pagination in gathering C of the third volume. Heavy worming to the last signature of the last volume. An interesting pirate edition of Aldrovandi's ornithology. Although he began planning his multi-volume encyclopedia of natural history in the 1570s, the first volume didn't go to press until 1599, when he was 77 years old. Only four volumes were finished by the time Aldrovandi died in 1605. After his death, his widow, students, and assistants used his extensive collections and notes to bring out nine more volumes of the encyclopedia. The last volume was published in Bologna in 1668. This book was the first volume of a series of pirated reprints done in Frankfurt. In the service of thrift, the Frankfurt editions abandoned the principles of quality in design that Aldrovandi had insisted upon for the Bologna editions. Instead, the piracies were printed in smaller type and laid out in two tight columns. Where the original Bologna editions used woodcut illustrations that could nest easily within the text, allowing for dialogue between word and image, the Frankfurt printers opted to commission copper plates that would combine several of the original illustrations onto one page. The resulting plates are somewhat cramped and chaotic, with a confusing numbering system; often, the engraver has made crude corrections by simply scratching out one number and replacing it on the plate. A neat exemplar of the ways in which the book trade shaped the spread of scientific learning in 17th-century Europe.

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