AULU-GELLE. "Noctium atticarum libri XIX", Basel, 1519. Smal - Lot 298

AULU-GELLE. "Noctium atticarum libri XIX", Basel, 1519. Small folio (31 x 21 cm), full marbled calf. First page with arms of Ludwig Hornken (14..-1521), woodcut frontispiece depicting Hercules monogrammed HF, ornate lettrines (later binding, dampstaining, corners dulled) The Attic Nights by the Roman grammarian Aulu-Gelle constitutes a sum of the erudition of the time on subjects as varied as literature, the arts, philosophy, history, law, geometry, medicine, the natural sciences and meteorology. First published in Rome in 1469, the work was then printed in the 16th century in Paris, Leiden and Basel. Ludwig Hornken (14..-1521) was a bookseller originally from Gröningen in Germany, who set up in Cologne and then Leipzig, employing printers from Basel including Adam Petri and Andreas Cratander.