Add MS 8790

CRISTOFORO CATTANEO: Geomantia; 16th cent. Italian transl. Copy, 18th cent. A manual of geomancy originally written in French and attributed to the Genoese gentleman Cristoforo Cattaneo, possibly the son of Francesco di Cristoforo Cattaneo della Volta, who was enrolled in the register-book of the Genoese nobility in 1528; cf. DBI, 22 (1979), p. 491. Geomancy is the art of divination based on the reading of signs from the earth or of lines and figures resulting from points jotted at random and believed to represent the four natural elements. Title (f. 1) 'La Geomantia del Signor Christoforo Cattaneo gentilhuomo Genovese / l'inventore di detta Almadal Arabico', inc. 'Che cosa è Geomantia, e perchè è così chiamata. Capitolo Primo / Geomantia è una Scientia, o Arte la quale consiste di ponti', expl. (f. 68) 'ma che si pigli per ricreatione, e Passatempo / Il Fine'. With illustrative tables throughout. The MS. is listed in Iter Italicum, IV (1989), p. 68b. A French version of the work was first published by Gabriel du Preau in 1558 with the title La Geomance du seigneur Christofe de Cattan ... Avec la Roue de Pythagoras. Le tout corrigé, augmenté, & mis en lumier par Gabriel du Preau... (Paris: G. Gilles, 1558), B.L. copy 1141.c.5.(1); other French editions followed in 1567, 1571, 1577. MS. copies of the French version in Toledo, Archivo y Biblioteca Capitolares, MS. 99,7 (18th-cent., apparently copied from the 1571 ed.: see Iter Italicum, IV (1989), p. 638a), and in Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS. fr. 14777 (17th cent., copied from the 1577 ed.). The text was translated into English by Francis Sparry with the title The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan ... Whereunto is annexed the wheele of Pythagoras. Translated out of French into our English tongue (London: John Wolfe, 1591), B.L. copies 1609/784 and 1141.c.6 (edition cited in the MS. catalogue of books on magic, now Sloane 696, f. 5v); another English edition in 1608 (London: E.A. for Edward White, 1608), B.L. copy 719.e.44. Armorial bookplate of the Hon. Frederick North, later 5th Earl of Guilford, with shelfmark 'L/19/B' (front pastedown). '282' in pencil in top left corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8784, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 282* (part).

Paper; ff. 69. Modern foliation in pencil '1-68' (followed here), omitting one leaf after f. 54. Old pagination in ink '1-137' (ff. 1-68). 267 x 196mm. Horizontal catchwords on each page. One Italian hand. Text-block watermark representing a figure within a shield, similar to Heawood, no. 1353 (Florence, 1647). Hon. F. North quarter binding of red leather over pasteboards with gilt-tooled spine and decorated paper covers.