Great humanist exposition of Aristotle
Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples, 1501
LEFÈVRE D’ÉTAPLES, Jacques (c.1450-1536) and ARISTOTLE (c.384-322). In hoc opere continentur totius philosophiae naturalis paraphrases. Paris: Wolfgang Hopyl, 1501.

First edition of the great humanist’s exposition of Aristotle’s works on the natural world. Ushering in a century of Aristotelian studies intent on developing the conceptual framework that contributed to creating the context for the new science, Lefèvre pays attention to problematic issues such as place, vacuum, the infinite, and time. "Lefèvre's central claim was that Aristotle himself should be the exemplar of method, not any “Aristotelians”. He exhorted students to read Aristotle's own works, rather than to make a career out of studying commentaries on them (R. J. Oosterhoff). USTC 142754 (no copy located in the US); Moreau I.59.69.

Folio (275 x 204mm). Printed shoulder notes and diagrams in the margins, woodcut diagrams to text, guide letters for initials (lower portion and upper margin of the titlepage torn off and repaired, a few quires a little foxed, some worm-holes near the gutter of the last 2 leaves with the loss of only a couple of letters). Contemporary calf, panelled in blind with multiple borders incorporating a chequered coat of arms all edges red (joints cracked but holding, ties and catches perished, spine chipped at head, corners and edges worn, some rubbing to the sides). Provenance: numerous contemporary academic marginalia in Latin throughout – Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune (bookplate).