Encomia Coelituum, Digesta Per Singulos Anni Dies, Una Cum Veterum Fastis, Recensibitus Victorias, Triumphos, Sacrificia, Ceterasque Res Insignes

Very rare first Viennese edition, illustrated with 366 figures by Johann Wolfgang Baumgartner. Remarkable baroque iconography. Only one copy located in electronic library catalogues at Strasbourg, one copy at Cambridge and another at Oxford.
Contemporary half brown sheep bindings, spines with raised bands decorated with fillets, green sheep title and volume labels. Skilful restorations to joints and headcaps. Rubbing to speckled paper boards. Although pagination is continuous across the four volumes and collation appears complete, we note the absence of a title page to the third part (binder's oversight?).
Engraved bookplate Froissart, second manuscript bookplate Augustin Sotteau.

Encomia Coelituum translates literally as Celestial Bouillon. More precisely, it is a calendrical collection of all the saints. It was written in the 17^th century by a Neapolitan Jesuit and professor of philosophy. The work contains portraits or biographies in verse. The iconography is exceptional, the 366 figures represent animated scenes with a distinctly baroque character, in a mannerist style. Specialized in the rococo genre, Baumgartner uses the perimeter of each figure to create a stylized frame that interweaves with the composition using motifs of foliage, architecture, trees, grottos... Though more famous as a painter, the author presents here one of his principal illustrated books, a true picture book.