1620 NEBULO NEBULONUM BY JOHANN FLITTNER ANTIQUE ILLUSTRATED VELLUM BOUND RARE

1620 NEBULO NEBULONUM BY JOHANN FLITTNER ANTIQUE ILLUSTRATED VELLUM BOUND RARE

Nebulo Nebulonum; hoc est, Iocoseria Modernae Nequitiae Censura; qua Hominum Sceleratorum fraudes, Doli ac versutiae aeri aërique exponuntur publice: Carmine Iambico Dimetro adornata a Joanne Flitnero, Franco, Poëta Laureato.

by FLITTNER, Johann

Frankfurt, Jacob de Zetter; 1620

FIRST EDITION.

Size 4 by 6 1/4"

pp. (8), 164, (4).

Predominantly Roman letter, some Italic and Greek; engraved title within architectural border with allegorical standing figures of Deceit and Idleness, a few head- and tail-pieces and foliated initials, 33 large engraved curious illustrations of emblems; occasional light browning

A very good copy in 1625 vellum (dated), missing ties, some spots, front hinge broken

First edition of the Latin versification of Thomas Murner’s ruthless satire Der Schelmen Zunft (‘The League of Rogues’), published in 1512.

This Latin translation after Murner – the early sixteenth-century master of satiric pamphlets who penned, i.a., a harsh parody of Luther – was Flittner’s most relevant and successful achievement.

It consists of a series of 33 erudite jokes in the form of illustrated verses against personal vice. Everything is taken and represented in its literal meaning, creating some funny emblems like the one depicting strict censors as people who ‘go around sifting excrement.’ Very fittingly, the work opens with a dedicatory epigram to Momus, the Greek god of mockery, which illustrates the meaning of the title (‘Rascal of Rascals: A Teasing Reproach of Contemporary Idleness’).

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