CONTARINI Gaspare.Gasparis Contareni Cardinalis. ampliss. Philosophi sua aetate praestantissimi de Elementis eorum mixtionibus libri quinque... Scipionis Capitii de principiis rerum poema.

Bound with:

Gasparis Contareni Primae Philosophiae Compendium. Lutetiae Parisiorum, per Nicolaum Divitem [Nicolas Le Riche], 1548; ibid., ex Typogr. Guilielmi Nigri [Guillaume Le Noir], 1556.

2 works in 1 vol. small 8vo 160 x 100 mm; Contemporary full smooth vellum binding; leaves [8], 119, [l]bl.; printer’s device on each title page,Italic type; leaves [8], 114, [1].Nice printer’s device on title page, Round type.

First and rare editions [appeared posthumously] of the two major philosophical works of the illustrious theologian and humanist Gasparo Contarini [1483-1542], the famous Venetian family, the protagonist of an intense life as a diplomat. The first work [which, however, in the author's chronology is next to the second here united], dedicated to Matteo Dandolo, was written between 1532 and 1535, years in which Contarini had begun to cultivate philosophical and scientific interests, ranging from Aristotelian physics to medicine. In it, the Contarini "refers to the doctrines of Aristotle and Galen, rather than to those of the Pythagoreans and atomists.

He also launches an attack against astrology divination which reprimanded the causes and reasons of all the effects of heavenly bodies ... "[DBI, XXVIII / p. 181]. At the end of the Contarini text is located the poem Latin Scipio Capicius, De rerum principiis, dedicated to Paul III. Adams, C.2563; STC, p. 122. the second work was begun in Spain, in the years when the Contarini held delicate diplomatic missions on behalf of the Republic of Venice , and then completed in 1527: "in Spain he wrote his philosophical work of greater commitment ... dedicated to Tommaso Giustiniani, in which returns on the relationship between faith and reason ... reaffirming that the human intellect, to the limits of the same its nature, is denied the knowledge of the divine mysteries, although the reason ... it closer to God "Very nice specimen.

[D.B.I., XXVIII/p. 177]. Adams, C.2576.