B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 1 SPLENDID FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF AGRIPPA'S DE INCERITUDINE (OF THE VANITY AND UNCERTAINTIE OF ARTES AND SCIENCES), 1569, BEAUTIFULLY BOUND 1. AGRIPPA, Henry Cornelius. Of the Vanitie and Uncertaintie of Artes and Sciences, Englished by Ja[mes] San[dford] Gent. London: Henry Wykes, 1569. Small quarto, early 20th-century full green crushed morocco, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine and cover borders, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Housed in custom full calf clamshell box. $14,500 First edition in English of Agrippa's in!uential response "to the intellectual upheavals of the 16th century" (Norman). In beautiful full morocco-gilt by the Rowfant Bindery, the successor of the famous Club Bindery. "Recent historical investigation… assigns Agrippa a central place in the history of ideas of the Middle Ages." "Recent historical investigation… assigns Agrippa a central place in the history of ideas of the Middle Ages." (DSB). Agrippa published De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum in 1530 while serving Margaret of Austria as a historian and librarian in Antwerp. He is well known for his interest in mystic lore and the occult arts— indeed, he is sometimes cited as the prototype of Goethe's Faust. The text "gives emphasis to the tension between the verbum Dei and human knowledge… At the beginning of the era of natural science, [De incertitudine] is one of the !rst testimonials to knowledge of the limits of human understanding" (DSB). Printed in Gothic type, title page within decorative border, and with full-page armorial woodcut of Thomas Duke of Norfolke on the verso. This copy was bound at the Rowfant Bindery, the brief successor, in Cleveland, of the famous Club Bindery of New York. The Club Bindery, "the !nest hand bindery ever to operate in America," was established in 1895 by members of the Grolier Club, who, "lamenting the dearth of !ne binding in America, brought several European-trained binders to New York, among them Léon Maillard, thought by some to have been the premier !nisher of his time" (Thomas G. Boss). Norman 22. STC 204. No !rst edition in Duveen; not in Ferguson. Seventeenth-century signature of John Gibbon on the verso of the "y leaf, as well as on the title page and in the margin of leaf *4r, dated "Sep: ye 2n, 1664." This is perhaps John Gibbon the writer on heraldry and genealogy, whose "reputation was deservedly high… [and who was] recorded without disgrace as the member of an astrological club" (DNB). Additional owner bookplate. A superb copy, with only minor expert paper repairs to margins of two leaves Kk1 and Mm3, in beautiful and scarce Rowfant binding, with its gilt stamp on the front pastedown.
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