BOOK, Incunable, Treviso 1471.

Hermes Trismegistus:

De potestate et sapientia Dei. (Translated by Marsilius Ficinus.)

Treviso, Gerardus de Lisa, de Flandria (Geraert van der Leye), 18 Dec. 1471. 8vo. 36 leaves (of [56]), lacking. ff. 31-49 and final leaf with colophon.

Unbound in loose quires, together with a facsimile of the same edition (Venice 1989). Some dampstaining in upper margin of first few leaves, first leaf with light soiling to blank recto and with tear at head (almost invisible through top 4 lines of text on verso), some gutters neatly strengthened, last few leaves foxed, ‘probatio pennae’ on two pages, otherwise in good condition.

ISTC ih00077000. GW 12310.

Exceedingly rare editio princeps of Ficino’s Latin translation of the Greek text of the Corpus Hermeticum, so important for the development of neoplatonic philosophy and intellectual discourse in Western thought during the Renaissance. A complete copy was sold at Sotheby’s in 2008 for USD 59,375

See description.