Los (doce) trabajos de Hercules (The twelve works of Hercules).

Enrique de VILLENA (Author)

Antón de Centenera (Printer)

Origin: Zamora, XV c.
Biblioteca Nacional de España. Coedition.

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ISBN 10:
ISBN 13:
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Inc. 2441
Facsimile. Incunabula. Collection of Incunabula and Old Books.

84-87988-33-4

978-84-87988-33-2
Folio
20,5 x 27,5 cm.
31+3 crd.
62+6 crd.
Spanish.
15th January 1483.
17th December 1995.
3000+80+50+30
Parchment on wooden board.
Literature.
Presentation dust jacket cloth lined with gold engraved leather spine containing facsimile.
Numbered by notary and signed by the printer-publisher.
Specially made laid paper.
Optional: Study in Spanish. Conducted by Vicente Escartí Soriano (Lecturer of the Faculty of Philology of the Universitat de València). Included in Bibliofilia Antigua III.
Gothic lettering. Provisional lower case or hollow in blank letters for the initials. 11 illustrations in metal conducted with the xylographic technique.

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Synopsis:

Typically Spanish incunabula, in which Antón de Centenera offers in his Zamora printing house, in 1483, the first edition of the famous book of Enrique de Villena (1384-1434), which was first written in Catalan and translated by the very same author. As written by a medievalist, it is a medieval essay of mythological exegesis.

The author, who has gone down in literary history framed within a certain atmosphere of legend, offers us a work of symbolic character, using mythology for establishing moral rules. His prose is typical of the era, using all the Latinizing resources which were fashionable at the time.

The illustrations are without doubt made by the Spanish artist, with the curious case that despite the "Works of Hercules" being twelve, there are only eleven reproductions in this incunabula, and the battle of the centaurs is missing.

IBIC Rating:

AC History of art / art & design styles
ACN History of art & design styles: c 1400 to c 1600
ACND Renaissance art
AFF Drawing & drawings
AFH Prints & printmaking
AFJ Other graphic art forms
AFT Decorative arts
AGH Human figures depicted in art
AGR Religious subjects depicted in art
DNF Literary essays
DSBB Literary studies: classical, early & medieval
HBJD European history
HBLC Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500
HBLC1 Medieval history
HBLH Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700
HPCB Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600
HPQ Ethics & moral philosophy
HRA Religion: general
HRAX History of religion
HRC Christianity
HRCM Christian theology
HRKP Ancient religions & mythologies
JFCX History of ideas
WCS Antiques & collectables: books, manuscripts, ephemera & printed matter

1D Europe
1DSE Spain
1DSEH Castilla y León, Autonomous Community
1DSEJ Cataluña, Autonomous Community
1QDAG Ancient Greece
2ADS Spanish
3H c 1000 CE to c 1500