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76 - GRUTER (Janus). *Florilegii magni seu Polyantheæ tomus secun…
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Estimate €400 - €500
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Description
GRUTER (Janus). *Florilegii magni seu Polyantheæ tomus secundus*, compiled and arranged from at least fifty ancient authors, Greek, Latin, sacred and secular. Strasbourg, the heirs of Lazare Zetzner, 1624. 2 folio volumes, triple gilt rule, coat of arms in the centre, spine decorated with a coat of arms and the alternating letters ΦΦ and IHS, red edges (17th-century binding). First edition. This anthology, compiled by the Flemish scholar Jan Gruter (1560–1627), professor of philology at Wittenberg and Heidelberg, is a continuation of Domenico Nani Mirabelli’s *Polyanthea*, first published in Savona in 1503 and reprinted many times with additions. It is, however, a work in its own right. A copy bearing the coat of arms of Nicolas Fouquet (1615–1680), Superintendent of Finances and Minister of State until his fall from grace in 1661, from the library of the Jesuit College in Paris, known as the Collège de Clermont – the future Lycée Louis-le-Grand. ‘The Jesuits of Paris, to whom [Fouquet] had bequeathed a perpetual annuity of 6,000 livres to expand their library, had two intertwined Φs stamped on the covers and spines of the works acquired with this annuity […]; moreover, these volumes more often bear, alternating on the spine, Fouquet’s coat of arms, the Greek letter and the Jesuit symbol’ (OHR) – as is the case with this copy, which also bears the handwritten bookplate ‘Collegii Paris. Soc. Jesu’ on the title pages. From the library of Talleyrand (1754–1838) at the Château de Valençay, with bookplate and stamp. The volume does not appear in the catalogue of the 1899 sale, which lists only 332 works out of the thousands held by the library. Two folios are missing from the second volume (pp. 981–984). Bindings are worn with losses to the caps and corners; slight scuffing on the covers (affecting the coats of arms on the upper covers); endpapers formerly replaced; pronounced foxing and heavily browned leaves, as is almost always the case with this book. OHR, 1398/1, 3–5.
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About the sale Fine antique books – A library in the Languedoc
Auction location
Auction time 10/20/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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