Early edition -apparently the first under this title- of Columbre´s work on the nature of horses and their care, bound with a translation of Xenophon´s Opera translated by Domenichi, bound for Charles de Valois, illegitimate son of the king of France, Charles IX.
Columbre was an Italian zoologist and veterinarian, of whom little is known about his early life; he began his activity in Venice as a surgeon and teacher of surgery until he was called by Charles V and later back to Venice to the service of Ferdinand II in Naples, to whom the book is dedicated. Interestingly, Ferdinand was very interested in the care of horses, he had two manuscripts commissioned on Vegetius´ Mulomedicina, which he commissioned to scribe Hipolito de Luna, he was also a famed Renaissance book collector. It is probably during this period that Columbre wrote this work, first printed under the title Mascalcia, in Naples in 1490.
Columbre was an influential figure in veterinary medicine during the Renaissance.
Rarity:
Very rare, according to OCLC there are copies at Michigan State Univ., Brigham Young Univ., Washington State Univ., National Library of Medicine, and BNF.
Provenance: Charles de Valois, Duke of Angouleme (1573-1650), his supralibros on boards; early ownership inscription on title of the Xenophon “Ex Bibliotheca minimorum Guichientium”; acquired from Benjamin Spademan rare books.
Charles de Valois (1573-1650) was the illegitimate son of French King Charles IX and Marie Touchet and famed for his siege of La Rochelle and military explots, he was educated at the request of his father by his, uncle Henry III; after a careful education he was destined for the Knights of Malta, and was shortly made Grand Prior of France. From his paternal grand mother, Catherine de Medici, he obtained his title of Count of Auvergne, after a short imprisonment following a failed conspiracy against Henry IV; after being freed, he became in another intrigue, this time costing him 11 years imprisonment. Following his new liberation, he was named Duke of Angouleme. “Pardoned for his part in the Marshal de Biron’s conspiracy of 1601, he began to engage in more treasonable plots with Spain (1604) in concert with his half sister, Henriette d’Entragues, mistress of Henry IV. Soon he went into open rebellion; after his capture in 1605 he was condemned to life imprisonment. Released in 1616 to serve the Marshal d’Ancre, he was created duc d’Angoulême in 1619. The Cardinal de Richelieu gave him military commands against the Protestants at the sieges of Montauban (1621) and of La Rochelle (1627) and in Lorraine (1635). Cardinal Mazarin gave him a command in the north in 1643. Angoulême’s Mémoires, first published in 1667, were reprinted in the Michaud-Poujoulat collection (1836).” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Xenophon: Adams X-27; Hoffmann III 604-605.
