HERO OF ALEXANDRIA (c.10–c.70 AD). De gli automati, ouero machine se mouenti libri due, tradotti dal greco da Bernardino Baldi. Venice: Girolamo Porro, 1589.
4° (188 x 135mm). Title within elaborate engraved border and 11 engravings in the text, several full-page, woodcut illustrations and diagrams (few scattered stains). Modern boards, marbled edges.
FIRST EDITION. The Automata or Automatic Theatre, describes two sorts of puppet shows, one moving and the other stationary; both of them perform without being touched by human hands. The former moves before the audience by itself and shows a temple in which a fire is lit on an altar and the god Dionysus pours out a libation while Bacchantes dance about him to the sound of trumpets and drums' (DSB). Adams H-368; Riccardi I, 67 ('Bella e rara edizione. Frontespizio ben tagliato in rame'); Gamba 1384; Mortimer Italian, 231.
HERO OF ALEXANDRIA (c.10–c.70 AD). De gli automati, ouero machine se mouenti libri due, tradotti dal greco da Bernardino Baldi. Venice: Girolamo Porro, 1589.
4° (188 x 135mm). Title within elaborate engraved border and 11 engravings in the text, several full-page, woodcut illustrations and diagrams (few scattered stains). Modern boards, marbled edges.
FIRST EDITION. The Automata or Automatic Theatre, describes two sorts of puppet shows, one moving and the other stationary; both of them perform without being touched by human hands. The former moves before the audience by itself and shows a temple in which a fire is lit on an altar and the god Dionysus pours out a libation while Bacchantes dance about him to the sound of trumpets and drums' (DSB). Adams H-368; Riccardi I, 67 ('Bella e rara edizione. Frontespizio ben tagliato in rame'); Gamba 1384; Mortimer Italian, 231.
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