Descripción
A tall, unsophisticated copy, in its original limp vellum binding (vellum stained, lacking ties, short split to upper hinge). The text is in very good condition with intermittent foxing, heavier in some gatherings. A compendium of ancient geographical texts, including descriptions of the known world by Pomponius Mela, Dionysius Periegetes, and Gaius Julius Solinus. Shorter texts include a catalogue of the regions within the city of Rome, "De regionibus urbis Romae" by "Publius Victor". The work is possibly a literary forgery of the 15th century, presented as the work of a newly-discovered author. The name was coined by Pomponius Leto of the Roman Academy. The volume was edited by Antonio Francino (1480- after 1537), a scholar of great talent, who taught in the households of important Florentines, and who produced, starting in 1517, numerous editions of Greek and Latin authors for the Giunta firm. Francino's opening letter in this volume is addressed to the twenty-year old Pietro Vettori, who would himself become a philologist of great renown. Pomponius Mela's Description of the World: "A generation earlier than the work of the natural historian Pliny, under the reign of Claudius or Caligula, we find the first Latin author whom, to the best of our knowledge, we can call a pure geographer and whose work has come down to us complete. This is Pomponius Mela, a Spaniard from Tingentera, near Gibraltar, whose Chronographia, "Description of Places" in three books, is preserved. The Chronographia describes the world, taking the Mediterranean as its basic point of reference. It proceeds counterclockwise from the Strait of Gibraltar, whither it returns at the end of the description."(Conte) "After a short prooemium, in which he dwells upon the importance and difficulties of his undertaking, he proceeds to define the cardinal points, and to explain the division of the world into two hemispheres and five zones. The northern hemisphere is that portion of the Earth which is known, and is separated by the impassable torrid zone from the southern hemisphere, which is altogether unknown, and is the abode of the Antichthones. The northern, known hemisphere is completely surrounded by the ocean, which communicates with the four great seas: one on the north, the Caspian; two on the south, the Persian and the Arabian; and one in the west, The Mediterranean, with its subdivisions. Next follows a description of the three continents: Asia, Europe, and Africa, and an enumeration of its inhabitants. These preliminaries being discussed, the author enters upon more minute details, and makes a complete circuit of the known world. "Thus commencing at the straits of Hercules with Mauritania, he passes on in regular order to Numidia, Africa Proper, the Cyrenaica, Egypt, Arabia, Syria, Phoenicia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Lycia, Caria, Ionia, Aeolis, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, the Asiatic nations on the Euxine and the Palus Maeotis, European Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, the Peloponinesus, Epirus, Illyricum, Italy from the head of the Adriatic round by Magna Graecia to the Ligurian Gulf, Gallia Narbonnensis, and the eastern coast of Spain. (Hispaniae ora citerior.) The tour of the Mediterranean being now completed, a chapter is devoted to its islands. Passing beyond the Straits, we stretch along the western coast of Spain (Hispaniae ora exterior), the western coast of Gaul (Galliae ora exterior), the islands of the Northern Ocean, Germany, Sarmatia, the shores of the Caspian, the Eastern Ocean and India, the Mare Rubrum and its two gulfs, the Persian and Arabian, Aethiopia, and those portions of Aethiop a and Mauritania bordering upon the Atlantic, which brings him round to the point from which he started. It will be seen from the above sketch that the existence of the northern countries of Europe and of the northern and eastern countries of Asia were unknown, it being supposed that these regions formed part of the ocean, which, in like manner, was supposed to oc. N° de ref. del artículo 4610
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