Maniliani Bononiensis monumenti historico-mystica lectio

Rare first edition illustrated with a frontispiece bearing Cardinal Mazarin's emblem and an out-of-text plate representing a cippus (funerary monument) found in Bologna in 1601.
This is a presentation and interpretation of the funerary stele of centurion Manilius Quintus Cordus (1st century BC) by philologist Alessandro Nigri which is now in the Bologna museum. The author cites other inscriptions including three relating to taurobolia (bull sacrifices).
Our copy is presented in original wrappers, under plain ivory paper covers with small marginal tears and a crease mark. Light and pale dampstaining throughout the volume in the upper margin.
Rare work absent from the British Library (but present at Oxford).