57 HISTORY & CULTURE “Some Things Worth Knowing”: Aristotelian Natural Philosophy Manuscript, Decorated 76(ARISTOTLE). Disputatio de Generatione et Corruptione. No place, circa 1700. Quarto, contemporary limp vellum. $1200 Attractive late 17th or early 18th-century manuscript of Aristotelian commentary in Latin, featuring decorative inked headers and illustrations. This manuscript volume contains over 300 pages of painstakingly inked notes engaging with Aristotle’s treatise De generatione et corruptione, covering “Rarefactione et condensatione,” “Actione et passione,” “De mixtione,” etc. On the last page is a list of Aristotelian quotes—captioned “Quaedam scitu digna,” or “Some things worth knowing”—attributed to poet and scholar Vespasiano Crispolti of the Accademia degli Insensati of Perugia, 1587. Each main section opens with a calligraphed header, some in two colors; also present are two marginal graphs, one section header with a colored thistle decoration, and one with a remarkable drawing of a royal stag facing off against a cockatrice-like mythical beast. Paper watermarked with a bird over three hills, in a circle. First section (approximately 60 pages) waterstained; a few scattered spots of staining elsewhere, contents overall clean. A unique, intriguing manuscript. “The Greatest Piece Of Literary Criticism In Existence”: 1705 First Edition In English Of Aristotle’s Poetics 77ARISTOTLE. Aristotle’s Art of Poetry. Translated from the Original Greek, According to Mr. Theodore Goulfton’s Edition. Together, with Mr. D’Acier’s Notes Translated from the French. London, 1705. Octavo, full speckled calf. $4500 First edition in English of Aristotle’s Poetics, in a handsome speckled calf binding. “Aristotle is not only one of the great classical philosophers, the master of every branch of ancient knowledge: his method still underlies all modern thinking” (PMM 38). His Poetics is regarded as “the greatest piece of literary criticism in existence” (Hornstein, 38). The anonymous translator of this 1705 edition, the first in English, has compared D’Acier’s French version to the original Greek, and has written explanations and improvements in his notes and lengthy preface. The pagination is somewhat erratic (one set of numbers is omitted while others are used more than once), but the text is nonetheless complete. BMC I: 923 (1033). Harris, 13. Some signatures toned; two pages with pencil annotations. An elegantly bound copy.
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