Latium

1671

de Beer Ld 1671 K

[Amsterdam]: apud Joannem Janssonium a Waesberge & [heirs of] Elizei Weyerstraet

This first edition of Athanasius Kircher’s thoughts on Rome and its surroundings (Latium is the ancient name of the area from Rome southward to Capua) is bound in an impressive stained stamped binding, which at one stage has been re-backed. Blind-tooled lines mark the outer edge, and a gap is just visible between the two long stamps that contain interlaced semi-circles. Both of these form one long rectangular band around the cover. Flowers and foliage decorate the inner panels, and there are five raised bands on the spine. This book was once in the Jesuit College in Antwerp, a gift from Balthasar I Moretus, head of the Officina Plantiniana. He surely knew Kircher, a German Jesuit scholar.