Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon. Quae praeter naturae ordinem, motum, et operationem […] acciderunt […].

Folio: [12]-670-[2] pp. (dampstained throughout, t.-p. and last f. underlaid, some marg. wormholes underlaid, lower part of double-page woodcut shaved, old rather clumsy repairs of tears to 1st ff. and pp. 183-193).

Mod. quarter vellum, marbled paper on sides, gilt label on spine. Good copy.

Extremely rare work of Lykosthenes (Wolffhart) (1518-1561), an Alsatian humanist and encyclopedist. Profusely illustrated with woodcuts: vignette on title, double-page on pp. 24-25, 1545 woodcuts in text (i.a. an Arabian rocket p. 494). "Conrad Lycosthenes' huge and influential Latin anthology of omens [...] was published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1557, when Nostradamus was in the very midst of writing his Prophecies. Rare and little-known today, it reproduces literally hundreds of omen-reports spanning the whole of known history, including the particularly important collection by Julius Obsequens (4th century AD) and the almost contemporary collections by Peucerus (1553), Frytschius (1555) and Fincelius (1556). Better still, Lycosthenes' book illustrates many of his reports with magnificent woodcuts, as well as indicating their dates in the margins" (Nostradamus on-line). Ref. VD-16 W-4314. - Caillet III:11470. - Durling 2878. - Wellcome I:3917. - Adams W-250. - STCGerman (BL London) 583. Prov. Bookseller's stamp.