MERCURIALE (Girolamo).

Lot 67
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 1 880EUR
MERCURIALE (Girolamo).
De arte gymnastica libri sex. Venice, Junta, 1573. In-4, supple vellum, remnants of laces, smooth spine with the title calligraphed in ink lengthwise, speckled edges (contemporary binding). First illustrated edition of this important treatise on gymnastics, decorated with 2 plans and 21 full-page figures, all woodcut from drawings by Pirro Ligorio. In the De arte gymnastica, one of the very first books on the subject, Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606), an Italian physician who was in the service of Alexander Farnese and treated the Emperor Maximilian, advocates physical exercise and gives details on the practice of sport, hygiene and baths in Greco-Roman Antiquity. The woods are very beautiful: they represent the famous strigiles, various athletes such as wrestlers, tightrope walkers, baths, etc. This is one of the earliest books to discuss the therapeutic value of gymnastics and sports generally for the cure of disease and disability, and an important study of gymnastics in the ancient world (cf. Garrison-Morton, n°1986.1). Very attractive copy preserved in its beautiful original vellum. Manuscript ex-libris of a Jesuit college dated 1625 at the top of the title. Some scorched notebooks, large clear moulding at the top of the first 4 notebooks and at the table notebooks.
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