Historia Ludicra. Opus ex omni disciplinarum genere, selecta & jucunda eruditione refertum

Bruxelles: Johannis Mommartius, 1656 A good copy of the second edition of this extremely rare work. First printed in Venice in 1652. Baldassare Bonifacio was a professor among many other talents and this work is a cabinet of curiosities - gathering a wide range of stories and recollections - including tales from classical antiquity of women who had serpent lovers. In full leather binding with raised bands and gilt decoration to the spine and tooling to the boards. It has had an old leather repair relaying the tooled front board onto plain leather. It is clean, showing wear to top and bottom of spine and edges and with a broken front hinge and weak rear hinge, although the board is still attached. The contents are in superb condition given the age of the book. There is a biographical note written in ink in english on a preliminary and 2-3 signs of previous ownershiip. Some of the ink has run a little. With black and white illustrated title page; page of names - D Carolo Hovyne, Equiti Aurato; dedication from Joannes Mommartius; section about Bonifacio; chapter index; 591 pages of text; final page with motif of mythical beasts; 'Index Rerum, ,approbatio by P de Roeck; and engraved picture at the end headed 'Post tenebras spero lucem'.The pages are slightly browned and there is the odd brown spot but it is otherwise clean and sound. It is an unusual size - 23 cm high by 18.5 cm broad.