Svmptibvs Samvelis Crispini. [Samuel Crispin]. Coloniae Allobrogvm. [Geneva] 1615. Folio. Title page in red and black. Engraved device depicting Fama to title page. [34], 746, [160], [8], 116, 3-29pp. Pages 2 and 27 incorrectly numbered 116 and 23, pagination complying with the Kew copy. Main body of text printed in double columns, with marginal printed notation. Head and tail pieces, historiated initials. Imprint date uses turned Cs. Running title: C. Plinii Secvndi Natvral Hist. Half calf, spine in seven compartments with leather label, renewed at a later date, retaining earlier marbled boards. Reinforced to hinges with linen. Some spotting, foxing, offsetting etc. A few minor dog-ears. Historic annotation in a neat hand to Lib. VI p.102 "These numbers are doubtless transposed" & to Lib. XXXIII p.653 "Ante de diminuum". A notably significant volume.
PROVENANCE
Early Inscriptions to Title Page:
D. Laurentius Strange
Charmay [indecipherable] [indecipherable] (written at an angle)
Bookplates to front pastedown:
'Lady Rodd / 1840' Armorial Bookplate with ribboned collar and badge of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.
'Sir J. Rennell Rodd. Recte Omnia Duce Deo'. Armorial Bookplate in indigo.
Jane Rennell, Lady Rodd,
the daughter of Major James Rennell* [see below] was born in 1777 on St Helena. Jane Rennell married Admiral Sir John Tremayne Rodd, KCB in 1809. Jane, Lady Rodd devoted many years publishing her father's current charts and revising new editions of his principal works. She died in December 1863.
Vice-Admiral Sir John Tremayne Rodd, KCB
(c. 1769-1838) Royal Navy. During the Napoleonic Wars Rodd served in a number of ships, including HMS San Josef under Admiral Sir Charles Cotton and HMS Indefatigable during the Battle of the Basque Roads. In 1825 he was promoted to rear-admiral, later advancing to vice-admiral and knighted. He died in 1838.
Their son James Rennell Rodd (1812–1892), father of:
James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC (1858-1941), British diplomat, poet and politician. Friend of Oscar Wilde. British Ambassador to Italy during the First World War.
*Major James Rennell FRS FRSE FRGS
(1742-1830) Geographer, cartographer, oceanographer. Rennell produced some of the first accurate maps of Bengal at one inch to five miles as well as accurate outlines of India. Surveyor General of Bengal. Rennell has been called the Father of Oceanography. In 1830, he was one of the founders of the Royal Geographical Society in London. He is buried in the centre of the nave of Westminster Abbey.
The Royal Geographical Society holds The Rennell Collection, 450 books selected from the extensive library at The Rodd, Presteigne, Radnorshire, left to the Royal Geographical Society under the terms of the will of the late Lord Rennell, a past President. Johnson, Alison M. "The Rennell Collection." The Geographical Journal, vol. 148, no. 1, 1982, pp. 38–42.
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 – 79), Pliny the Elder. Roman author, naturalist, natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire. Known commonly as The Natural History this is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire. Probably the first encyclopaedia to have been written, and certainly the earliest to survive. "An astonishing compilation of 20,000 "things worth knowing," was avowedly intended to be a repository of ancient Mediterranean knowledge". Richard Saller. Pliny's Roman Economy: Natural History, Innovation, and Growth. Princeton University Press. 2022.
Historiae mundi libri XXXVII : Opus omni quidem commendatione maius, sed nullis ad hunc diem editionibus, nulla cuiusquam singulari vel opera, vel industria, à mendis, quæ aut temporum iniquitate, aut superiorum ætatum negligentia, inter Latinos primæ notæ scriptorem hactenus occuparunt, satis vnquam emaculatum fuerit. Nunc denuo quanta praestari potuit fide, cura & diligentia, tam ex vetustissimorum & aliorum hactenus excusorum, quam plurium etiam manuscriptorum codicum attentissima collatione; idque post vltimam defuncti doctissimi D. Iacobi Dalecampii præstantissimi medici manum, ita fliciter repurgatum: variis quoque Sigism. Gelenii, Fredenandi [sic] Pintiani, & aliorum lectionibus, castigationibus & adnotationibus eruditissimis ornatum; vt nihil posthac huic operi desiderari posse videatur. Accessere itidem indices vtiles & necessarij.
Dalecampius, Jacobus [edit.]
Gelenius, Sigismundus [edit.]
Pintianus, Ferdinandus [edit.]
Rhenanus, Beatus [edit.]
