White Knights copy.- Vergilius (Polydorus) De inventoribus rerum libri VIII et de prodigiis libri III., engraved additional pictorial title depicting Gutenberg ('Typographiæ Inventor'), and the inventor of gunpowder being blown up, printed title with woodcut printer's device, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and decorative initials, C4 short marginal repair at lower corner, occasional spotting or light staining, lightly browned, small area of worming to rear pastedown and endpapers, attractive late 18th century dark red straight-grain morocco, covers with central gilt crest of the Marquess of Blandford and blind-stamped floral decoration within single gilt filet outer border, spine in compartments and richly gilt with star, floral & foliage and dot tools, repaired scuff to lower cover, a few small ink spots to upper cover, rubbed at extremities, g.e., [Willems 1464; cf. Caillet III, 675 and Thorndike VI, 488-489], 12mo (binding 133 x 81mm.), Amsterdam, Daniel Elzevier, 1671.

⁂ The White Knights copy of this work on inventions, the origin of things, and portents, which Caillet calls a 'Véritable encyclopédie, remplie de détails et d'anecdotes curieuses'. Includes printing, gunpowder, magic, astrology, astronomy, architecture, and medicine.

Provenance: George Spencer Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), Marquess of Blandford, White Knights Park, Reading, Catalogus Librorum qui in Bibliotheca Blandfordiensi reperiuntur, 1812, fasciculus octavus, p.47, sold at auction as the White Knights Library, by Mr. Evans, 26 Pall-Mall, Monday 7th June (and thereafter), 1819, lot 4298, bought ?Blaquiere for 11 shillings (gilt crests).