Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileTitle Page: De demonstratione, libri quinque by Bartolomeo Viotto
De demonstratione, libri quinque
About This Work
This is a digital scan of a 16th-century title page printed on paper, featuring black typography and a central woodcut printer's device. The device shows a winged horse, Pegasus, leaping over a staff entwined with two snakes and flanked by two overflowing cornucopiae resting on clouds. Handwritten ink annotations in cursive, including the name 'Joannes Dee' at the top and 'Fran' and 'Bernard' flanking the device, appear in the margins, and the paper shows visible yellowing and staining characteristic of an early modern book.
This title page marks the 1560 Parisian edition of Bartolomeo Viotto’s work, bearing the signature of the famous Elizabethan polymath and occultist John Dee, confirming it was part of his personal library.
Inscriptions(Latin)
Joannes Dee 1561: DE DEMONSTRATIONE, LIBRI QVINQVE, nunc primùm in lucem æditi. Quorum argumenta proximè sequentes pagellæ indicabunt. BARTHOLOMEO VIOTTO Medico Taurinenfi, & Theoricæ Medicinæ profeffore publico authore. Fran [handwritten] Bernard [handwritten] 16 [handwritten] 69 [handwritten] PARISIIS, Apud Andream Wechelum, fub Pegafo, in vico Bellovaco: Anno salutis 1560. Cum priuilegio Regis.
Translation
John Dee 1561: On Demonstration, in five books, now published for the first time. The arguments of which the following pages will indicate. Bartolomeo Viotto Physician of Turin, and public professor of the theory of medicine, author. PARIS, At the house of André Wechel, under [the sign of] Pegasus, in the Rue de Beauvais: In the year of salvation 1560. With the King's privilege.
Connected Texts
John Dee
This specific copy belonged to the library of John Dee, evidenced by his handwritten ownership signature at the top of the page.
Bartolomeo Viotto
The author of the text, De demonstratione, libri quinque, which is a treatise on medicine.
Collections
Provenance & Source
Object
woodcut
laid paper
Renaissance
French
manuscript-illumination