Author: PIGNORIUS, Laurentius (PIGNORIO, Lorenzo).
Title: Mensa Isiaca, qua sacrorum apud Aegyptios ratio & simulacra subjectis aeneis simul exhibentur & explicantur.Including: Magnae deum matris idae ae & attidis initia. Ex vetustis monumentis nuper tornaci & nerviorum erutis.and: Manus Æneæ, Cecropii votum referentis, ...Amsterdam, Andreas Frisius [printed by Joan Blaeu], 1670 (frontispiece and divisional title-pages 1669). 2 works in 1 volume, the second in 2 parts. 4to. With an engraved frontispiece (with Egyptian and other antiquities). The first work with 11 folding engraved plates with hieroglyphics, 6 full-page engraved plates, and smaller engravings in text. The second work (in two parts) with 3 full-page engraved plates and several smaller engravings in text. Contemporary overlapping vellum, title in ink on spine.
Description: [8], 96, [11]; [8], 96 pp.Third and best edition of two important works on Egyptian archaeology, the first edition with this title and form, originally published together, written by Lorenzo Pignorius. The first work, a famous study of the Egyptian artefact known as the “Mensa Isiaca” or “Bembine Tablet”, devoted to the Egyptian goddess Isis, is the first notable work on Egyptology, first published at Venice in 1605, titled Vetustissimae tabulae Aeneae sacris Egyptiorum simulacris ... The Mensa Isiaca was a bronze table top, discovered in the ruins of the temple of Isis in Rome at around 1525 and now believed to have been executed in Rome in the first century A.D. Pignorius studied this very famous artefact when it was in the possession of Cardinal Bembo. Pignorius believed that it depicted the sacrificial ceremonies according to the Egyptian rites. The bronze is now in the collection of the Torino Museum.The first part is an essay on the deity Great Mother of Gods by Pignorius (first published in 1623). The second part titled ''Manus Aenae cecropii votum referentis, dilucidatio'', by Jacobus Philippus Tomasinus, contains a description of a small votive statue of a hand. At the end (pp. 63-96) it includes a biography of Lorenzo Pignorius and a description of his museum and library and its contents (including ancient coins and portrait busts of classical figures) by Tomasini.With the armorial bookplate of "Liechtensteinanus". Water stain on the title-page, small tear in page 46, otherwise in good condition.l Blackmer 1312; Gay 1567; Ibrahim-Hilmy II, 119; cf. STCN 097598186 (3 copies).

Keywords: [4C531C9794C4] AFRICA|[4C531C9794C4] AFRICA -> [C98C41A79B35] North Africa & Egypt|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOPHY|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOPHY -> [G8QGI4BLWW6I] Archaeology & Classical Antiquity|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOP