Author: VALERIANO (Piero) [Joannis Pierii Valeriani Bellunensis]:
Title: Hieroglyphica; seu, De sacris Aegyptiorum Aliarumque Gentiuim Literis Commentarii. Summa cum industria exarati, & in libros quinquaginta octo redacti: quibus etiam duo alii ab eruditissimo viro sunt annexi.... Accessere nunn primum perutiles ad marginem Annotatipones nunquam hactenus excusae, una cum Declamatiuncula pro Barbis, ac einsdem Poematibus: eaque a mendis quaeirrepserant, vindicata. Cum Indice Gemino.
Description: Lugduni [Lyon], Sumptibus Pauli Frelon, 1602. Folio (in 6s), 377 x 232 mms., pp. [xvi], 644, [4], 47 [48 translation, 49 printer's imprint, 50 - 54 blank], title-page in red and blank, engraved portrait of author on verso of last leaf before text, numerous woodcuts throughout the text, man partially inked over/ out (?vandalism, amateur shading, prudery), contemporary vellum (soiled and darkened); no blanks or front free end-papers before title-page, some upper and lower margins of text water-stained not affecting text, rear end-leaves creased, top of spine defective, upper margin of rear cover defective. Piero Valeriano Bolzani (1477–1558), also known as Giampietro Valeriano Bolzani, was a notable Renaissance humanist and a favourite of the Medici. The above work was first published in 1556 at Basel and reprinted frequently thereafter. Cristoforo Buondelmonti, an Italian geographer and monk from Florence, visited many of the Greek islands between 1414 and 1430. In 1422, during one of his returns to his home, Buondelmonti brought back the only known manuscript copy of Horapollo's Hieroglyphica, a compendium of interpretations of hieroglyphs; it was published by Aldo Manuzio in 1505. Valeriano's Hieroglyphica was in many ways a continuation of his writings of his tutor, Giorgio Valla, and it does include the original text of Horapollo translated into Latin. However, Valeriano combined the knowledge gained by Horapollo and his studies (based on over 400 other Greek and Latin sources) and produced the first Renaissance dictionary of symbols and hieroglyphs. This work was divided into sixty books, each focused on a specific symbol and dedicated to various members of the Italian humanist circle (Achille Bocchi, Paolo Giovio, Giorgio Valla, Jacopo Sadoleto, Giles of Rome, Romulus Amaseo, Vittoria Colonna, Reginald Pole, Antonio Agustin, &c.).

Keywords: hieroglyphics philosophy prose


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