WOLFFHART, Conrad (1518-1561). Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon. Basel: Heinrich Petri, August 1557. 2° (288 x 191mm). Large woodcut on title and about 1600 woodcuts in the text, including one double-page and repeats, several by H.R. Manuel Deutsch and David Kandel, woodcut printer's device on final verso. (Browned, occasional spotting, small marginal wormhole at beginning, wormtrack from about quire Oo mostly marginal but occasionally touching text, author's name erased from title and second leaf leaving small marginal hole.) Contemporary flexible vellum (light stains, spine defective). Provenance: Jo. Baptiste de Mari (16th-century signature) -- J.A Mongiardini (signature).

WOLFFHART, Conrad (1518-1561). Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon. Basel: Heinrich Petri, August 1557. 2° (288 x 191mm). Large woodcut on title and about 1600 woodcuts in the text, including one double-page and repeats, several by H.R. Manuel Deutsch and David Kandel, woodcut printer's device on final verso. (Browned, occasional spotting, small marginal wormhole at beginning, wormtrack from about quire Oo mostly marginal but occasionally touching text, author's name erased from title and second leaf leaving small marginal hole.) Contemporary flexible vellum (light stains, spine defective). Provenance: Jo. Baptiste de Mari (16th-century signature) -- J.A Mongiardini (signature).

FIRST EDITION of a copiously illustrated and exhaustive anthology of natural wonders and curiosities, including monsters, prodigies, portents, and comets, such as one resembling a spaceship sighted in Arabia in 1479 (on p. 494), and sightings of Halley's comet. A German translation was published the same year. Adams W-250; Durling/NLM 2878; Wellcome 3917; Zinner 2177.